Amp was on max (+ 3db) when she blew. I think I was actually boosting the signal from the spdif on the computer also. I had it there for about 30 min. And before the amp blew it was vibrating the lights in the ceiling fan sooo much that one the the light bulbs popped. I had to turn the fan on so that the centrifugal force overcame the vibration, otherwise it woulda been lights out!

It did not blow the fuse strangely enough. It actually fried the amp. I was on the phone with technical support for 30 minutes until the told me to bring it in.

Regarding the resistance measurements. You can't just measure it with a multimeter and get an accurate picture. Impedance changes with frequency response. Take a look at an impedance curve. like this one.

http://www.churchsoundcheck.com/imp1.html

You'll see that the impedance is highest at the resonance frequency. This is because of electro-magnetic properties of the transducer. As the voice coil moves within the magnet assembly, it produces a voltage in the voice coil, this can be thought of as some "backpressure" on the system, that's why the impedance is higher.

Selecting the "nominal impedance" that a company puts on it's spec sheet is a bit of an artform. Some will select the lowest value, others kind of an average, after throwing out the extremes.

re-wiring your M80's is a bad idea.

All I can say is

Dude?!?!?!?!?!?!

Respectfully, you have some nice gear to enjoy for the rest of your life. Try and make sure your ears last just as long.

In a previous post you said the binding posts are 2 mid and 2 tweeters on 1 set of posts and the 2 woofers on the other. This made sense to me based on the Ohm reading I got. If it really is 1,1,1 shouldn't the reading be the same or at least very similar?

Hope I didn't misread something between the 2 posts.

No, no, I meant the same thing with this post--as in one set of posts is to the woofers, one set of posts is to the mids and tweets.

Seriously, dude? You need outboard amps. You can't expect a receiver to survive on max volume pushing 2 sets of 4 ohm loads. I suggest you look into some seriously high power units, maybe the Axiom 1400-8, maybe something at around 300WPC... It would probably be best with the Axiom amp if you used it only for the M80s. That would give you ~350WPC. Or maybe I'm just talking overkill and you could use the 1400 with all the speakers.

Ken meant "one set of binding posts for woofers (2 of them), one set of binding posts for midranges and tweeters (4 drivers total)"

Sorry, I actually did misread something.

Anyway, how does wiring the woofers separately from the mids and tweeters help when bi-amping or bi-wiring? Wouldn't it balance the load on the amp more evenly if they were wired 1,1,1.

Ken,
Do you have or ever tried this amp? I would be interested in your opinion.

I have to agree with Ken, it is time for some serious power. I have yet to run my 3808 for any length of time, a song or two, above -10 and this is really loud(~95-100db depending on the cd, IIRC) in my room. Your room size and what you are trying to achieve I feel are beyond the Denon's capabilities.

You could also get some monoblocks from Outlaw Audio, Odyssey Audio, Emotive, etc. which would be more cost effective. I love my mono's.