Okay, I'm back after a longish delay. (There must be some universal law that says when you are on the verge of a new toy, the bossman automatically increases your workload.)

I took the majority opinions into account ... and still got the Marantz 1602. But don't be put off, the recommendations had me looking into more options for a week and a half. I wanted the smaller form factor, although it still didn't fit on my shelf, the feature set was perfect, and since my lsat two receivers were Onkyos I was in the mood for something different.

I hooked everything up this weekend and it sounds very nice, and I'm loving all my new internet and network features (I didn't even have HDMI on my retired rcvr). But, while I get sufficent volume for any level I might want to crank, it's also true that I'm up to 60 of the maximum at normal levels, and I get to about 90% of the maximum (+1 db, for what that's worth) when I crank it to my worst rocking out volume.

So my question is, is running at those levels inherently bad? I think I could still get Amazon to take it back if I'm runnin gtoo high. (And feel free to also take this opportunity for I told you so's.)