I have a pair of Energy Veritas 2.1 speakers that I'm still in the process of breaking in. I'm using an older Onkyo 80w reciever, which I can tell clearly isn't going to cut it down the road.
My budget is $500 - $600 for a new HT receiver, inclusive of shipping.
90% of the time, I'm going to be listening to stereo music, but I'll be slowly building the system up to full surround sound use.
The audio feed will almost always come from my personal computer.
My music tastes tend to be on the prog rock side, occassionaly listening to new age, classical and jazz ... and even some metal.
I have an older Denon amp in my den home theater that sounds okay with them ... but they aren't broken in and it still seems a bit bright and stuffy at the same time.
I have listened to a Marantz (5300 I believe was the model) and a Pioneer Elite 41. I found the Pioneer Elite much more to my tastes.