Newbie to audio

Wow, what a wealth of information! Thanks in advance for answering all of my stupid questions, I am wet behind theears in regards to high end audio. Actually, with my upbringing you'd think I'd be an aural whiz kid. My Dad was an engineer\artist\sales guy for lines like Tannoy, Bose, Yamaha, QSC, Ashly, EV etc. He repped mostly PA lines but we always had a great system in the house, I guess I just didn't get into it because who wants to share a hobby with your dad....not cool for a teenager. Well I'm much older now (almost 40!)and I finally have developed an interest. This latest obsession can be traced to my boss, he's obsessed. I've been to his house several times and enjoyed his system so much that I decided to take him up on his offer to help me build a system. First thing I did was call my dad and ask him for his advice on a set of speakers. I told him to do some research and find me a decent pair of speakers for $1000. My dad just laughed and told me that he had everything I needed packed up in the garage, he had been saving it for me for some 30 years now. A week later three huge boxes arrived containing a pair of Tannoy Little Gold Monitors (10") and a Sonetic amp (Sonetic was made by QSC as a DJ line). I had no idea what I was looking at but my dad assured me I was off to a good start. My boss agreed. Next came a bunch of components from my boss at an obscene discount... my new pride and joy, the VPI Scout turntable with JMM tonearm. Looks cool, sounds cooler. Next we added a YS Audio tube phono stage the Concerto model with all the upgrades, all of this goes into the Dared SL2000A tube pre-amp. Wow, I had no idea what I have been missing all of these years. Now all I do is scrounge for vinyl and sit in front of my starter system with my jaw hanging open... either that or make my wife sit in front of it and say things like "listen to the highs from cymbals!". She just nods and smiles.

Enough of this long diatribe, the reason for this first post is to get some advice on amplifiers. Clearly the weak link in my system is my power amp. I am looking for something less than $1000. How much power should I be looking for? Does anyoone know if these are 8 or 4 ohm speakers and what the hell does that mean anyway?