Hey Chevy. Welcome. Good luck on figuring this stuff out. It's fun, but it can give you a headache all at the same time.
First, take a deep breath. You're in good hands, and you've already made the hardest decision (and the wisest in my opinion) by putting Axiom's at the top of your list.
I have an M60, VP100, QS8 home theater running through a Yamaha RX-750. It is a lower powered version of the RX-1400, which is the lower powered version of the RX-2400, etc. I never have to turn my volume up anywhere near maximum, and have never worried about hurting my speakers because of clipping issues. I don't find that the Yamaha is too bright. I have friends with better (more expensive, I should say) equipment visit me and comment on the clarity of the Axiom/Yamaha combination.
Many will tell you to think about (1) power and (2) features when it comes to receivers. The rest is icing on the cake. I.e., what feature set do you want? What's your price point? What are your listening tendancies? Do you need separate bass management for different inputs, etc....
I'm not sure if Mini-Rock is right about the difference in solid state amps or not. I haven't dont the research myself to know. But many others, more informed than I, will say that most solid state amps sound identical if not very close to one another, especially when listened to in isolation of the other. That is, while the Yammy and the H/K migth sound different rigth next to each other, when you take them home, the difference may become so indistinguishable to not make a difference.
I went for a price point and a feature set (making sure, of course, that it wasn't grossly underpowered), and I couldn't be happier with the Yammy.
And MiniRock needs to lay off the caffeine today. Too much Star Wars for him lately. I apologize for the rest of us on his behalf.
