Randy,

I have to admit that I don't understand how the waveform limiter caused the amp to shut down. But if that's what Emo says, then that's how it must be.

I suggest you ask Emo how distortion is affected when you remove the waveform limiter. The waveform limiter is very much like the dynamic range compression function on your Denon. When the rate of change of amplitude of the signal gets above a certain threshold, the limiter engages and reduces the amplifier's gain to prevent clipping of the waveform. So if you remove the limiter, you now run the risk of clipping the waveform. Clipping is bad as it introduces harmonics. These harmonics not only sound terrible but they can also fry tweeters.