I agree with Johnk. If you look up the review of the 661 on audioholics.com, you will see that the 661 is a beefy 100w receiver delivering more than its stated power on a continuous basis.
When I was at Axiom, I had a chance to talk to Tom Cumberland about receivers. He told me that Yamaha (consumer side) tends to do a complete redesign of its amps with each new series, so it is hit and miss as to how good the amp section is. Denon, in contrast, tends to be more typically Japanese and makes incremental improvements to its amps with each new rev., so you have a great deal of consistancy.
Short answer, Brett has his heart in the right place, but is wrong on this particular Yamaha.
