Jeff,

I have started to stack receivers (NAD and Sony in particular) which have failed to continue to be useful. I find it hard to believe that a 7-channel amplifier will be useless in the next decade. Whatever happens on the A/V side, in an era of rapid evolution of A/V standards, I think the amp/pre-amp divide is more useful than ever. As someone who bought his first amp/pre-amp combo, I think that receivers are a scarier and scarier investment, at least as one who just made the move from a straight reciever.

Replacing the 950 looked a lot easier than replacing an integrated Marantz product or equivalent.