*bump* for advice on the A/V Receiver model
I installed a system in early '97- the receiver is a Denon AVR-987 and the speakers are Dynaudio Audience 52 (L/R), Audience 42C (C) and Audience 42W (rear- shallow and use the wall to maximize the lower mid-bass). These speakers are a much more difficult load than the Klipsch and the system has worked flawlessly for close to 4 years. Any of the Denon receivers should be fine for whatever you want- if you decide on Dynaudio, they have a newer line called Excite, which is designed specifically for people who want to use a receiver. The impedance isn't so low (difficult) that it will cause problems and, having installed as pair of the Excite 32 two weeks ago in the same house, I can say that they're able to fill a good sized room very well.
As far as first-hand experience, I recently built a pair of speakers that use a 2-1/2-way configuration and the impedance bottoms out just below 4 Ohms. The Denon AVR-990 has never run excessively hot, shut down or done anything other than work as it should, at any level.
FWIW, Klipsch bought several companies in the last 10 years and it's not because they wanted to own a bunch of companies. It's because they wanted to be able to ship their products to the rest of the world without needing to go through the whole process of becoming CE certified. It was easier and faster to just spend some of the cash they had accumulated over the decades, having made few changes to their product line, which means they spent almost nothing in development of new products. They had cash and, in the case of Jamo, the founders wanted to retire. The company was worth more than all of the other shareholders would have been able to accumulate if they were to buy it, so the shares were put into a holding company, to make it easier if a buyer came along.
Personally, I would look at other speaker brands like Dynaudio, Canton, Jamo (since Klipsch has left the designers fairly un-molested) etc. I installed a pair of the Dynaudio DM2/6 earlier this week at the same house and, while I didn't get a chance to listen to them for long, they were very full-sounding, especially considering the size of the bass driver.
Until I got my Denon receiver earlier this year, I hadn't owned anything other than some kind of separates since 1978. It would be pretty expensive (and take up a lot of space) if I wanted to have the same features in separates now. The sound quality is very good and at this point, I neither have the desire nor the time to look under every leaf for the best piece of equipment for my system. I still want really good sound, but I'm not going to jump through too many hoops to get it.
