Guys,

Looks like I can get my hands on 5 Marantz MA500's for about 1KCDN, which seems like a reasonable deal to me.

One question, these monoblock amps are rated at 125W into 8 ohms, and can be bridged to put out something like 450W into an 8ohm load. Can I bridge these amps into a 4-5ohm speaker like the M80 without blowing either the amps or the speakers?

Guess I could Bi-amp them to the M80's as well, which is probally a safer alternative.

5 for $1,000Cdn did they fall off a truck?

I've been looking around for "reasonable" priced monoblocks and have come to the conclusion that they seem to be a very rare animal indeed.

Hope not! They look in good shape, just picked them up today from the guys place. Think they were very well taken care up judging from the guys other stuff. These amps sold around $350-400CDN new, so I think I got a fairly reasonable deal for 1K all in.

Well the road to separates has begun. Hooked these puppies up over the weekend, and the M80's sang like never before with my onkyo 787 just as a pre/pro. Liked it so much, picked up 2 larger MA700's (300W 4ohms) to run the M80's, and will have the MA500's run the M50's, VP100, and M2i's in surround.

Now the quest is to ditch the 787, and try and find a suitable HT surround sound processor. Not much selection out there though, basically comes down to Rotel 1066, Outlaw 950, and perhaps a Marantz AV9000 tossed in for good measure.