To get biggest bang for your buck - most of budget should go towards speakers (including sub).
It's the speakers and room are almost ONLY factors to overall sound quality (not Reciever)
That said, many folks around here prefer Audyssey multeq room calibration over other options, which is used by Denon & Marantz.
Did you actually heard these speakers? What others speaker your heard and did not like?
In 16x20 room, unless you have extremely hard to drive speakers, you probably don't need amp.
Based on these Stereophile
measurements I have hard time buying provided spec for Paradigm studio 60s v5: ±2dB from 45 Hz - 22 kHz on and 30deg off-axis
In your price range I'd strongly consider
Ascend's CMT340's for LCR with optional pedestals.