Will,
I agree completely. It sure would be nice to be able to compare receivers directly to amplifiers. Being in the market myself, I would love to be able to really compare the "true" power of the premium receivers to the many amplfiers out there. For some reason, the receiver manufacturers do not want to give the real measurements. I believe that NAD and HarmonKardon at least in the past would give true power ratings that always looked low on a spec sheet compared to their low cost competition but it did not seem to hurt their sales too much. The Sound&Vision summary is interesting in that at least you get to see if the manufacturer's claims are anywhere close to the tested power. Some of the receivers only put out 50-60% of rating even at clipping!
Pete in Louisiana