I may be way off base here but as an owner of a H/K AVR 430 and as a guy who has set up an AVR 235 I don't think the rec'r is the reason sound isn't attacking you and dancing with you. I looked but didn't find out much about your M-1's and I have no idea how big your room is but my buddies AVR 235 will easily hit 100dB in a pretty big room with the speakers 12' away.
Maybe you can post spec's for the M-1's and we can figure out if they are the reason you're not being attacked.

The AVR 340 probably wants to put you into an ICU for dissing it.