I came across the same thing. I boosted my budget to 2K and the best you really can do is a high end receiver (if you choose to ignore the Outlaw - I did mainly because it's getting dated). I'm very happy with my Arcam AVR-300. It's $2200, but I got it for under $2000 at my local dealer. It promises to put out 100 watts per channel all channels driven simultaniously. And it's a clean sound that leans a little towards warm, so it's a good balance for the Axiom speakers. I would consider looking at that as well...
