I'm sure there are receivers out there which will outperform the 1018 but for the money, and for what "I need" in a reciever, this one fits just fine. I highly reccomend the 1018. heck for under $500, how could you go wrong.
The issue is not at all whether the receiver will power your Bose speakers. If that were the final goal, we'd find you a receiver under $200 and be done with it. The issue here is that you are starting to look at speakers that sound good, that sound great, in fact. Some of the speakers you encounter in your shopping will demand physical requirements of an amp that this receiver does not have. Many of the best sounding speakers have electrical characteristics that will turn that receiver into a toasted lump of plastic and aluminum if you were to crank up Motley Crue to high volume for extended periods and sound like crap while doing it.
If you insist that this receiver is all you want to drive your speakers, then you will have to limit your speaker search to the speakers it is capable of driving, which eliminates very many great sounding speakers. You can't defy physics.
Or let me put it this way. I made the exact same decision you did. While I was out shopping for speakers, I bought a receiver because I figured I would have to have something to plug the speakers into when I brought them home, so I bought the Denon 2307, a fine receiver to be sure. Then I fell in love with the Era D5 and found the 2307 simply fell short of the capability to drive them to the level I wanted with the likes of Metallica, Ozzy, etc. In the end, I picked up the Rotel amp to compensate for my receiver not being able to drive my speaker choice for my listening habits. Had I been smart, I would have picked my speakers, then chosen the receiver that could drive them.
The smart money says find a set of speakers you absolutely love. Go crazy, stretch the budget, shop above your means, camp out at the high end boutique stores if you have to, but most of all, LOVE YOUR SPEAKERS.* The whole rest of the audio budget is simply to support the sound that comes out of the speakers, from content sources to the electrical charactristics of the amp.
*Just not in the ParadigmDawg sort of way, eww.
