Good review, I have had one of these for awhile, and am very pleased with it. I have it running some Behringer 2031p's, which are 4 ohm speakers, and what a superb pairing! The whole system cost less than $400, I'm sure there isn't a better value out there. I have read about people running large Magnapan speakers on this receiver with great success, and as you know maggies are reputed to be fairly difficult to drive.
A couple points, in the review it is mentioned that the two sub outs can run subs in stereo, I'm not sure what the reviewer meant by this, but both sub outs are outputting the same signal, so it is in mono.
Also, I know it isn't a very common feature with stereo receivers, but one thing I would have like to have had is bass management. There is none on this receiver, except for that goofy bass knob on the front. The speakers are going to get the full signal, there is no high pass filter there, so if you don't want them to playback deep bass, you will have to buy a separate filter module. Likewise, I don't know where the crossover is on the sub out, or if it even uses a crossover, but you have to use the sub's crossover, because they are receiving very high frequencies for a sub out.
Another thing is, the headphone jack on this receiver is supposed to be an above average implementation, so if you have high end headphones, you may not need a separate headphone amplifier to drive them well. My Denon AH-D2000's sound great with the 3490, and that dolby virtual headphone thing is pretty nice sounding.
Also, in disagreement with the reviewer, I like the trademark H/K O-ring volume knob, it looks nice!
