A friend and I have "close" to the same system (it's easier to not have to learn remotes, cuz it seems that we both spend too much time at each others' houses...).

We're both feeding a receiver's preamp section (Denon 2803) into a stack of amplifiers. My bud has a buncha Phase Linears, and I'm running Haflers. He's got Cerwin Vegas, and I have some Infinities. He's using a Denon DVD/SACD/Cooks breakfast for you disk player, and I've got a Sony.

Thing is, he's a drummer.

We've reached a point with his system. Can't really get it LOUD enough. I mean, push the buttons/turn the big knob/whatever, and it reaches a point where it won't do anything else. I'm guessing 105/110ish db. You can still _sort of_ carry on a conversation. And he wants Who/Ramones/old Pink Floyd volume. He's a drummer.

His old preamp (multichannel, but didn't do 5.1 or DTS) would downright PEG the needles on the Pflame Linear amps' VU meters. This thing barely makes 'em twitch. It's like it wants you to keep from hurting yourself.

What do people with large rooms do with these things? Besides buy _very_ efficient speakers? I mean, he's got over 2,000 watts to throw at the Cerwin Vegas, not counting the sub amp... It's like the amps aren't being told to get out there and uncork some... It's like the preamp is trying to "protect" you.

So... He bought an Arcam AVR-300 on Saturday. We plugged it in. The volume started to get to TV watching levels around 85-90, and then we couldn't turn it past 100. Plus it didn't have a switched outlet to run the relay that turns on his amps...

He took it back this evening.

So, the question - Will one of Outlaw's preamps (figuring 990) give him some volume? The amps are functional, and the wires work fine - we retested with the old multichannel.