Point well taken Larry, but I guess where it's clipping is not important in most cases, both 'kinds' of clipping destroy speakers, by either delivering high frequency noise, or by simply delivering DC to the voice coil of the speaker, thus pretty much welding it to the gap if it's long term. Also, when you clip a signal you deliver about twice the ouput power of the amplifier to the speaker, and if your speaker is not rated for these power levels, whamo.

But it is interesting to see everyone's input into this common problem with budget audio distribution issues.

John, Yeah the autoformers lose some power, but how much to heat, I mean have you ever felt a warm autoformer in a wall? But wouldn't you agree you need to keep the gain structure to the last stage volume control at it's absolute maximum signal level? Letting the VC in the wall attenuate the signal to the level you want? I guess that's what I'm saying...