Digital Receiver Noob ?'s

[Swylen]

My interest was tweaked by the HK 7001 hubub. I really like the low profile much cooler running digital receivers. I've looked into the Kenwood VRS-7100 ($280), Panasonic SA-XR70 ($350) and Panasonic SA-XR50 ($224). I just bought a JBL NorthSeries 12" 250W subwoofer ($199-Thanks JR.COM) and have a bunch of old speakers. I have 4 Bose 301 Series3 speakers and a couple AR PS2262 towers. Can't remember what kinda center. All I can afford now is a receiver but will a digital receiver sound bad with any combo of the above speakers? I would like to upgrade them at some point in the future. The new Pansonic model has the HDMI hookups for HDTV stuff. That might be overkill so I'm thinking about the older panasonic model. I saw a review against the Kenwood and it came out ahead. Any thoughts?

 

[toquemon]

What is the impedance of your AR towers? Maybe you'll need a more solid amp to feed your speakers (specially if they're rated 4 Omhs), something like Yamaha or Denon.

 

[Swylen]

These aren't expensive speakers will be my next major upgrade. I can use all 4 bose with center and woofer for now if that works better.

AR Speaker Specs:
20–200 watts recommended amplifier power
2-way bass reflex design
Dual 6 1/2" woofers 1" silk dome tweeter
Frequency Response: 35Hz–20kHz =/- 3dB
Sensivity: 90dB
Impedance: 8 ohms