Don't know what type of receiver you have, but maybe you should have gone the vintage route. Many of them puts out anwhere from 3 to 9 full watts out of the headphone jacks. And a lot of them have a mute function that allows you to even drive very sensitive iems from the headphone jack as well. The only type of modern receivers I've had good luck with are the flagship ones. Most receivers are very, very overated. Some that's rated at specs like 120wpc have been tested at around 40-50wpc. At least some will tell you that their numbers are rated when only two channels are driven. Even if it's only a two channel receiver, many of those are still very highly over rated. But there are so many different types of receivers, with out you tell us what type you have, no one can give you any types of suggestions or anything. Pioneer's upper line receivers have actually been good at providing close to their rated amps with their ice topology amps, but as with most ice amps, the sound is very dark and doesn't sound good at all.
Started typing before your post of the kind of receiver you have. Brand name receivers are bad enough. I would never go with a no name receiver or any audio gear of any kind. If you do, you can most definitely expect the results you have. JMO though.
Edited by moodyrn - 10/28/11 at 8:32am
