Sir Terrence,
I totally agree with you...I think we're just making 2 different points...I had on older H/K receiver that was only 20 watts or something...I bought it at a yard sale for 20 bucks, I still have it in my garage and I'm pretty sure it still works, anyway...it was great in my bedroom, but when I put it into a living room, my volume requirements went up and the bass did suffer substantially. I thought it was my speakers, but an upgrade in that department still left me wanting in the bass frequencies.
Lesson learned.

Anyway, we should have audiophile police or something that goes to BestBuy and Sears to advise people not to put their faith (and money) into the hands of part-time salespeople.

Man, if the internet was around in the early 90's I would have saved hundreds of dollars on audio gear!!!

Just out of curiosity, what is the lowest frequency the average human ear can detect?
I've never owned a 40Hz-20,000Hz amplifier, mine have all been 20 to 20...do they really lack that much bass?