I am a newbie to this forum, and the general topic of quality sound reproduction, but here is my situation. I have been using:
Onkyo TX-SR574 receiver,
CS Newton M60 front channel (sometimes swapped for Polk RTi4's), CS Newton MC500 center
CS The Surround II's surround channel (they came with the house)
CS BassCube 10S sub

I ran across the Axiom products in my search for an upgrade to this system, and am looking at the Epic 80-500 set for the speaker upgrade. I don't believe the SR574 will power that set of speakers (4 ohm), and even if it could power them, it would not be adequate to meet my goals. I have been looking to upgrade the 'data acquisition and processing" side of the system for some time in any case. BTW, my goal is to achieve the most impressive (BIG judgement call there I realize, but for me it means true, but enveloping) sound that my budget can afford. That budget is somewhat dependent upon what I can achieve at each price point, but realistically (considering the wf) will not go above 8 or 10K, and I would like to keep it under 6. Accurate audio reproduction is my main goal, but I do need to manage the HDMI signals, to some degree, and I very much prefer to have a network capable device to which I can stream digital music, since I have converted all my CD's to lossless digital files, and am seeking to expand that with SuperCD (think that is the term) files.

In my searching for information and education, these Axiom forums appear to one of the more objective sources, thus this post. I ran across a close-out deal on an Onkyo TX-NR906 ($1250) and decided it was worth giving a try. I have had it hooked up for several days and am still trying to figure out whether it was the best use of $1300 toward my goals. I have looked at the Denon's, not spent much time on the Yamahas, and compared the specs on the 906 to the XX07 series. I have also looked at separates, but not so much as the AVR's. So my first question is whether the 906 going to 'play well' with the Epic 80-500 (or -600) set, and is that the best return on my dollars. I am hoping that some of you have had a chance to do an apples-to-apples blind test on the 906 in comparison to some of the likely options.