There is much going for receivers as an all in one box solution. I have several but they compromise sound quality in one way or another.

For people into fidelity, separates especially a quality amp offers an optimal way to get better performance from the rest of your gear.

I doubt the A1400-A is targeted at buyers of receivers since a receiver in essence represents a cheaper all in one box compromise. This amp will appeal to people who have gone or are thinking of upgrading to separates.

Based on its performance, it belongs in the same category of the big solid state amps by Krell, Classe, Bryston, McIntosh, and others. If you compare its pricing to those other high performance amps, the price of the Axiom amp looks pretty favourable. It doesn't make much sense to look at the A1400-8 as a product designed to compete with a cheap compromised receiver solution. This product is not for receiver consumers.

I look toward reveivers more as an alternative to a pre-amp which is where their cutting edge feature sets have an advantage. On more than one occasion I have used receiver pre-outs into a separate amp to by-pass the inferior amps found many receivers.

John