My Receiver Did What??

It blew me away. Absolutely stunned me with it's quality. Was putting together a "junk" system for living room (The good stuff's in the basement HT).
So,I get an Agon deal on a Denon DRA-395 receiver - nothin' great, I think. Just to have sound.
I hook up the Vandersteen 1's and WOA! It's not supposed to sound this good! I'm shocked at how much receiver technology/performance has changed in ten years since I had one.
Denon seems to have this SLDC or "Signal Level Divided Construction". According to manual, "The circuits handling low level and high level signals have been divided into separate blocks to ensure that influences from these signals on each other are held to an absolute minimum."
Hey, is this "consumer-speak" mumbo jumbo, or is there something to it? My ears tell me that it's pretty doggone good. I've never heard a receiver I've owned sound so good. I'm expecting my second hand NAD cd player to arrive today. It'll get hooked up and I'll give a listen. I'm expecting great things, based on the receiver's performance.
I may just stick the receiver in my HT system to see what it sounds like. Then again, maybe I shouldn't...
Another audiophile friend (he's really up there with a bunch of Mark Levinson, etc.) said he had the same scare, that he tried a receiver with his main speakers and said it'd be tough to pick the better sound in a blind test.

Yes, there are definite nuances of superiorety in our higher end gear, but it seems to me that the mass-fi stuff has made a huge leap toward catching up.
Anyone else had a "scare" similar to this? To me, it makes it difficult to justify spending ten times the price for the "good stuff."
One last thought; I'm sure the listening room plays a huge part in this perception. Upstairs the system is in a room with wood floors, which makes it sound reverberant. In the HT, the room is tuned, with less brightness. I'm sure if I put the everyday system in the same envioronment, the "magic" would wear off about the time I hit the power button. Or, would it?...