>Been told that's how it's designed to protect the amp & speakers.
>

Amps have built in protection, it usually kicks in when there's a short in the
system, but it may also happen when an amp is driven to "clip" which can happen
if it's overworked - for instance if it's been forced to drive music at a
constant volume beyond it's capacity. Generally speaking, the protection is
designed to turn the amp off completely, but I guess it's possible that the
Monsoon amp may just be designed to turn itself down rather than off.
Steve Grauman