Yeah, that's the "problem" with the receiver approach. They've got to make compromises somewhere or (a) it won't fit in the box or (b) it becomes prohibitively expensive or (c) both. 8-) Unfortunately, for receivers, it seems that the amp is the sacrificial lamb.

Those Denon receivers (and the cheaper Arcams) sound great though (as pre-amps/processors). The jury is still out for me whether the 990 sounds better/worse, but I'm inclined to say it's equivalent...which means it sounds pretty darned good.

Cheers,