As previously stated I bought a NAD T758 V3 after Amir's review because I didn't expect to need to drive it into the distortion Amir observed above -6dB and only use its HDMI input. This is indeed the case as I am well below these levels in my room with my speakers. Even with my use case it might still be considered flawed by some (many?) but I look at this review and when comparing the measurements I'm struggling to see how the DDRC-88A would be considered as a good value alternative to the NAD which offers a 7.1.4 solution with 7 internal amplifiers (4-channels of external amp reqd for the full 7.1.4) plus ATMOS/DTS-X decoding along with Dirac 3.0. Especially because I purchased it new for about $11 more including full range Dirac vs the DDRC-88A at full price.
I might well have tin or cloth ears, I certainly have 60+ years old ears, but the T758 sounds fine to me. I do wonder if there is a tendency to over think and over complicate for many consumers, especially around AVR solutions, with a possible tendency to over emphasise specification at the cost of pocketbook, functionality and usability.
I understand Amir's goal is to drive manufacturers to improve measured performance, particularly when it should be affordable to do so. Clearly, its not Amir's mandate to find use cases for equipment that fails to measure up. However, it would be nice to see a little more exploration of that because I can certainly appreciate Amir having chosen to specifically call out how the NAD performed at the -6dB point, since it helped me decide the T758 might be a good entry point to surround sound with Dirac for me.