I am having a big problem with my reciever. It is pretty new and a fairly nice reciever too, but for some reason whenever I turn up the volume any higher than about 15% of the max volume it just shuts off. Any ideas on how to fix it or what it wrong?
"Could they be too loud of speakers for the two amps?"
Not a chance.
If this is a pretty new receiver, I'd be talking to the shop where you made the purchase. Off hand I'd say you were doing something wrong, it's highly unusual for two receivers to have the same problem out of the box. Call the retailer and let them sort this out by asking the appropriate questions.
Oh, you do have good clean connections at all points on the receiver and speakers, right? No stray wires touching anywhere?
Add 'Odd smells' and 'bad distortion' to Nuck's list. Does it run long enough to get hot? Lights in the house dim?
If possible, bring your speakers to the point of receiver purchase and let them blow up some of there stuff, or show you what you are doing wrong. One 'bad' would be to hook both speakers up to one channel.....the result for most current receivers will be similar to what you describe.