Welcome aboard. You're the audiophile, not the NAD receiver (a decent brand but....). Personally I don't find listening to sales people at audio stores to be of particular value, they're more experienced with selling what they've got than sources of good general advice and/or knowledge usually.
Never heard of Airpulse before but the
A300 looks like a decent active speaker if it provides the connectivity you want and sounds good to you, then they are good (there's always the chance you can find better, tho). Use your own ears to determine what speakers you like, not what some guy on the street or sales floor "says". Auditioning a variety of speakers is a good way to narrow down your choices, or even measurements can help do that. I don't have any brick and mortar stores near me and have used several internet direct audio companies and buying other brands over the internet, as long as there's a good return policy to back it up it works well for me. YMMV. There's a lot of very good performing gear at reasonable prices these days in any case. There is a wealth of reviews/articles/discussion here at Audioholics to help out in your research.
SVS makes some fine speakers and subs in any case. They've mostly offered passive rather than active speakers until recently and I see they're selling the
Prime Wireless Powered speakers direct for $400/pr at the moment. Personally I'd rather have something from their Ultra line of speakers (passive). FWIW I have an older pair of passive bookshelves (MBS-02s) from them, they're very nice speakers. Ascend Acoustics I have several models of, JBL as well as some others.
Golden Ear is owned by a company called Audioquest more known for their silly and too expensive wire/cable with unsupportable claims for performance, but highly profitable (Fraudioquest is what I prefer to call them), and I"d not even consider spending my dollars that way personally, but that's me. Cambridge Audio is a decent brand but depends on the specific models as to how suitable it is or how well its priced compared to the competition. There are a lot of choices out there, tho. What particular gear/speakers I have may not be particularly relevant to you but the speakers (and your room) are the most important aspect as to good sound, the electronics make much less difference, as long as they have the feature set/connectivity you need.
Brand alone only means so much, specific models and pricing offered might be a better basis for your questions (and are you even in the US or ?). Not sure how downsizing from one system to two systems works particularly for you either....personally I have five systems, four of which are multich and combined with video as I like to combine my audio/visual experiences but I hate selling old gear and have plenty of room for it to still be put to use, and sometimes I have even helped friends out by giving them gear to use.
What are you particularly looking for, a simple 2ch system for music only?....is using a sub still on the table or ? Hard to know what your goals are unless you share 'em....