thanks everyone,
just an fyi, i ran a small experiment (not done yet). nothing with mods, just differnt setting on the MT (change the setting to 'L'). Set up rig in car, system that pushes 400 watts rms (50 watts * 4 channels and 200 watts to sub, not peak but constant power). I don't know what type of dB level this would be, but its loud. It doesn't appear to overload the MT now (no red lights). So maybe I had the wrong setting. I need to check some other things and I'll report back. Not quite as technical as all the post here, but I'm learning.
Thanks again,
John