Understood. Having fun or not, I thought your comment was a pretty good summary of where the thread was heading so I figured that was a good post to respond to.

I agree completely with your opinion -- I'm just less convinced than some that a typical AVR has enough juice to cleanly drive our equipment to the levels we desire.

I realize this puts me right in the demographic crosshairs for an amplifier I can't afford

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8