Jeff, I totally agree. Really there is no additional significant manufacturing cost to per-channel control. Additional test cases have to be added for sure at least during dev testing but that's quite a minor non-recurring engineering cost. The other thing that is very puzzling to me is how this very important feature is buried in the document. It ought to be advertised as a key feature. I'd really love to know by the way what the difference to THD+N is with the amp off and on.
Rebulx, I did not see such a control in the RX-A860 manual when I was looking at it.
I personally would never pay the extra dough for a pre/pro unless the manufacturer can prove their numbers to me for the production unit I am buying. I will bet there isn't a single manufacturer out there who can satisfy me. I won't call out any manufacturers, but there are ones selling processors for tens of thousands of $ who don't publish any specs and for the ones that do, their specs are worthless. I damn well know how difficult the performance game is and that performance includes noise control. The other side of this of course is there are very few people who would pay for "spec perfection". It is very possible and yet so very expensive.
The masses have no clue. Even many engineers don't. This is a good write-up on audio specs that just begins to scratch the surface. Reflect!
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/Mathew-AudioPrecisionSpecifications.pdf
