ksimple,
hopefully this will encourage you to go with Denon.
I have the 1602 (probably worth $250 USD now, new it was about $600 CAD). With it, I drive the Epic80 to very nice levels without distortion, and I can play it for a long time. It's rated at 70wpc into 8 ohm, 110 wpc into 6 ohm - that means it can probably give up to 125 or 130 wpc into 4 ohm.
Despite there being no specs about it driving a 4 phm speaker, the user manual says it supports it. And it does. I can even run the M80's set to Large and it has enough power to produce good clean bass.
So, if a few hundred dollar Denon can do that, but a $1500 pioneer can't, imagine what a $1500 Denon can do
