Geez, Murph has his game on today. Nice.
Fred, don't get sucked into the notion that you MUST have M60's or M80's. They are great speakers, but so are the bookshelf models. The additional time you get to spend listening instead of saving is worth something.
You should probably call Axiom directly. They are great people. There seems to be pretty broad consensus that M22's plus a sub (like the EP350) is a KILLER system.
I listened to "large Advent" speakers about 30 years ago. In context, I thought they were excellent. But modern technology - and Axiom's commitment to both R&D and to neutral speakers - is going to mean a very significant step up from there.
I want to underscore Murph's point about the revealing nature of the speakers. You are going to find that Axioms are very accurate. They make great recordings sound stunning but also reveal every blemish and shortcoming of recordings compromised during any stage of the process. If you are listening to 128k MP3's, you will quickly find yourself searching for quality source material.
Because I had to buy in phases and would never be happy without floorstanding speakers, I went through basically the scenario I outlined for you earlier. I would suggest that you "start" with either M60's or M22's plus a sub.
There are lots of decent receivers for about $300 or a little less, particularly previous generation Onkyo's.
