[mongo70]

I've never had my receiver go into safe mode while playing C.D.s at high volume for hours on end, but if I crank up the volume while playing records I'm lucky to make it though both sides before the 3808 goes into safe mode. The music sounds wonderful, and I can not detect any clipping or anomalies in the play back. For no apparent reason the AVR just goes into safe mode while playing records loud. I was hoping with a phono preamp bypassing the AVR's phono input I would put a halt to the protect mode problem. To my ears it seems that C.D.s play nearly twice as loud as records at the same volume. The phono input sensitivity on the AVR is 2.5-mV, so I don't think the amplifier is being over driven by the DL-160 cartridge, which has a stated output of 1.6- mV. Perhaps I'm overheating the amp by having to turn up the volume so high to get the output I want? Has any one else had this problem, and do you think a phono preamp running through the AVRs CD input would solve the problem? Any help appreciated.