Wife gave me permission to upgrade

[PENG]

Why not? It'll run cooler if that's complaint #1. All its doing it dropping the rail voltage, or adding resistance. Otherwise, yeah, you'll get a better amp with Onkyo with every dollar spent. Of course, the fan is a better idea, that way you can use the amp to its full capabilities.



Tell me why Denon/Marantz is better? I'm not familiar with Marantz prices, but Denon is usually twice the price for comparable mid-level feature sets.

I would say if you drop the rail voltage of the 805 using the 4 ohms selector, it may still be as powerful as the 863 but it may no longer be competitive with the 2808 in terms of dynamic power output. It seems like a good idea though, as least now people know there is a quiet alternative to the noisy fan solution, as long as you can live with the reduced power.