Rene: thanks for the input!!!!!!!!!

I will have to take a closer look at the M200s frequency response. I was under the impression that it was pretty flat from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Is there another brand of monoblocks that you recommend? 2 channel? 3 channel?

There was a significant double blind test (I'll see if I can find the reference and post it later) where listeners COULDN'T tell the difference between a $600 receiver and a $12,000 amplifier.

Amplifier quality: Agreed! From what I have seen, in a receiver the price point dictates what the power supply capability is. 1/8 and 1/3 of full capability seem to be current price points.

The was an article on a different thread discussing power supply design. The conclusion was that with very loud listening levels you needed 40% of the full RMS, all channel, capability. I haven't found any metrics that give the power distribution in either a 5.1 or 7.1 system. But, I believe that most of the power is in the front and center channels. My thesis is that if I can off load the power requirements of a reciever for the fronts and possibly the center channel, then the internal power supply should be sufficient for the surrounds. Maybe only the fronts need to be off loaded. I sure would like to see some metrics on the power distribution and I suspect that they exist, somewhere.