Welcome Chris,
1) A lot depends on your seating distance. If your arrangement allows to have the rear surrounds back a bit from the seating position, things can be real cool. Even though there are not many movies done beyone 6.1 or 6.1, using Dolby PLIIx makes 5.1 movies or even 2-channel music wonderful in all 7 speakers.
2) To me, bookshelves can't compare to the quadpolar design of the Qs4's or Qs8's, especially for movie watching. They have 2 woofers firing up/down, and 2 tweeters firing left/right which totally envelopes you in sound. They even do great for music. When I used to use bookshelves the bullets in action movies flew by me, now they go right through me.
3) Most receiver brands in the same price range will be very similar. I would say get something that has the bells and whistles you want, which they all most likely will, and go for it...
4) I've never heard of HTD speakers, so I can't compare to Axiom. I compared Axiom to Paradigm, NHT, B&W, Klipsch, and a few others, and once I auditioned Axioms it was the end of the story. You could check the Audition thread in the "Hearing Things" threads to see if someone is in your area to let you audition Axioms.
I would highly recommend you add a SUB to the equation if your getting bookshelve speakers, which will give you a better experience in LFE.
good luck
ps: check out the Factory Outlet prices on the "Store" page, you save 10%, plus another 5% if you buy 5 of any items from Axiom, including accessories.
