OK, so it has been 3 weeks since the Crown LSX 802 has been in my 7.1 HT serving an external power amp driving the front two channels in the system.

I'm begining to really appreciate the big head room, clean sound and effortless peformance by the unit (500 watts x 2 into 8 ohm loads). As I memntioned before, I disconnected the fans which were very noisy; the unit runs cool to the touch, however.

All-in-all, it has been a decent acqusition for my system. Right now, I'm considering weather additional purchases of more Crown amps makes sense for me.

I'm leaning aginst the additional acqusitions at the moment since the quality of typical program material that is mixed in the studios for the rear and surround channels is not high IMO. That is unfortunate, I suppose.