I'll ditto the recommendations of ARC, Levinson and Krell. Certainly these manufacturers have produced excellent products and have a good history of customer support. These are vendors are "solid", kind of the McIntosh of the last decade (even longer). At the more inexpensive side NAD and Adcom must be given credit for very good products and in use results over the years. Speaker maufacturers are much more taste dependent, but I repect products from Magnepan and Vandersteen. Magnepan (I have never owned a pair) has been near state of the art since the late seventies and are a great value. Vandersteen (I have never owned a pair) has consistently been the best music/$ value over many years and hold up very well. While I don't own a pair of Vandersteens many of my non audiophile friends have bought Vandersteens after I recommended they give them a listen. Guess what, I think their reciever/integrtaed based systems sound damn musical and they LOVE them. I am less enthusastic about the high end products of B&W and Thiels as recommended by others and preferring to recommend the speakers offered by Avalon and Wilson. Both are exceeding good, sound different but still right, with the Avalon's requiring lot more power than the Wilson's. Have fun!
