HT amp for my father - advice please

I never ventured into HT so I'm at a loss. My father has an older TV (will upgrade soon) and has 5 speakers (Sonus Faber concertino left/right, center and rears. He would like to use them for TV, DVDs and to run his dedicated imac loaded with music from itunes. PLUS...he is wired from the living room throughout the house including outside. Maybe 3 pairs of speakers not including his HT setup.

First thing...he needs an amp. He's thinking $5-600. How much pwr?

Recommendations please! I feel foolish I can't help him after all my years at audiogon. He likes simple and relatively inexpensive. I'm visiting him for 10 days so I'd like to get this rollling for him.

(oh, and hi to all my old audiogon friends.I haven't been around much lately!)