For example, I read a review for the DVD-A disk of the 1812 Overture. It warned of speakers not being able to handle the sudden volume change that accompanies the cannon fire. If I pair the M80's with a Denon 33xx/43xx receiver I won't have to worry about things like that correct?
Correct.
Using
this calculator we see that at 100Db average volume with 10 Db of head room the M80s will use 198 W of power. Note this is using Axiom's in room response of 95 db to account for room gain. I believe that the 43ll you were looking at will deliver this quite easily into 4 Ohms.
Turn that down to a much more reasonable but still loud level of 85 db and you are using 6 watts.
Give yourself 20 Db of headroom that may be demanded by the most dynamic of classical recordings (like the 1812 Oveture??) and you are using a whopping 62 watts peak. That means your 4311 will have around 140 watts in reserve that you will never use unless you move your system into a much bigger room.
I don't know why people so happily ignore simple physics in their quest to spend thousands of dollars on amplification that, as John always points out, will not be used.
