Does It Hurt....

Thank you for taking the time to answer this question!!

It doesn't hurt the unused channels, but their self esteem does take a beating.

No one likes to feel like their existence is meaningless.

@tony1954 *L*  The idled amps in my multichannel bitch daily 'bout just that....*sigh*

I threaten them with a 'dummy load'...that seems to mollify them enough for awhile...

If you are not going to use the redundant channels you would do better selling the receiver and getting a proper two channel amp.

@yoyoyaya 

"If you are not going to use the redundant channels you would do better selling the receiver and getting a proper two channel amp."

Not really. I am in the same situation, with my Anthem AVR only used to power my centre channel and one subwoofer. But, more importantly, it serves as a hub for outputting the L and R channels to the HT Bypass on a Musical Fidelity M6si and it allows for connection of all my HT components via HDMI. Something a "proper" two channel amp wouldn't be capable of doing.