That's why I got an 805.

Charles, that voice in your head that says "You get what you pay for" may be that of a desperate seller of high-priced goods or services who has no objective way of justifying himself. A more detailed lab test of the 806 in connection with the HomeTheater Magazine review is found here . Consider also the 876 which has similarly excellent amplification and the superior Reon video processor.

Agreed, the voice is unreliable at times. But your suggestion does prove the voice right this time. The 876 is not in the same league, IMO, as the 806. It has higher current abilities, its video sections is, as you mention, very very good. But it cost twice as much. My dilemma was the BB bankruptcy that had an 806 for $500. The 876 is in my group of contenders with the Denon 3809 and Marantz and Integra 8.9, etc. But I was damn impressed with the 806's power output. I noticed in the store how light it was. I was shocked at the power it put out in the test. Relatedly, the Integra (Lexus of Onkyo) website publishes the High Instantaneous Current Capability of its AVRs. Interestingly, the 9.9 has double the current capability of the 7.9. Am I correct that this indicates a much more robust power supply, and thus better headroom? I expect the same goes for the the Onkyo line. I wish Denon would publish this number as I would be interested to compare apples to apples.

Edit:

Yes the higher amperage output indicates a better P/S, there are other things to consider in the amplifier stability equation as well, but a high amp rating is usually a good sign of an amp that can sustain low impedance.

I know what you mean about Denon. I have been searching for a long time to find any lab tests, etc. for some sort of amperage output reading.

Thanks for the info. And the review you cite does have some interesting numbers. In particular, I am surprised by the Seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads at 0.1% distortion of 79.6 watts. That is less than my 10 year old Denon 3300 (I think it made 90 at that test level). These numbers are a far cry from the impression made by the other test showing over 140w at clipping. All this stuff is confusing the crap out of me. Where are the apples???

Have you seen this lab test of the 3808, just to add even more confusion.

Charles, Dr. Ohm determines how much amperage(no more, no less)is necessary at a given instant, not manufacturer hype about "Instantaneous Current Capability", etc.

The basic 2-channels fully driven FTC-required power rating is more nearly in accord with the realities of actually listening at home, rather than a laboratory torture test driving all channels at full output simultaneously.

This is unrelated to anything in this thread, but I was surprised to see an Energy Take system (don't know which one, as I didn't look closely) at Costco yesterday. It's just not a brand I expected to see there.

Energy...Costco....I don't like the sound of that.

It might be the Klipsch ownership influence. Or perhaps Klipsch dumped a big stock of Energy Take 5 systems at a discount to Costco. Maybe the Energy Take . . .systems are being replaced?

Regards,

Alan