@justjames72 McIntosh separates are certainly considered more ‘hi-fi’ than a HT receiver. And over $10k in separates would generally be though of to out perform a $2k all-in-one, so class and price-point would say yes, but I don’t know. All I know is the 156 is beating out a few of the top $5k+ conditioners for more than a few owners with over $50k systems... Its just not fair to bash a distributor when/if a piece doesn’t work well in your system, when there are to many other variables to consider.