All good advice.. for the price the Onkyo is defo the better choice. My personal preference is for more "industrial" kit, which is why I run Crown .. but it's horses for courses. Good speakers make more of a difference than any amount of money spent on an amplifier.. I can tell you the difference between a solid state top end amp and even a not great valve amp.. the valves sound better (and I know why as well, but thats another story) .. but that comes after more than 10 years in a professional music environment.. most people can't tell one amp from another.. even cheap ones sound fine unless they don't like the speakers or are pushed too hard.

Rules for audio (basic and true)

Good quality speakers.. listen to lots before deciding

GOOD!! speaker cables.. not those "oxygen free" con trick.. but decent mains cable 10 amp twin core.. and cut them exactly the same length. (can't stress that enough.. good cables)

Enough power to drive your chosen speakers.. there will be a rating in the figures for the speakers somewhere DbW/M .. thats the efficiency.. get above 95 and you only need a 5 watt amp.. seriously!! A good pair of vintage Tannoy Golds or similar are about 95-97.. and will blow your head off at 20 paces with 10 watts into them.. as long as those are good honest valve rated RMS watts!!

Pay attention to the acoustic properties of your listening room (whole books have been written on the subject) .. you don't want it too bright, but at the same time most rooms are over damped.. try it and see.. take the big padded sofa out and listen again. (I clap my hands in a room a couple of times before setting up a system.. and deal with any "nasties" as much as possible.. a bad sounding room will sound bad.. 2x length to width and 1/2 height is awful.. (any brit sound engineers will shudder when I say.... Tamworth Arts Centre) ;) Think why the bathroom sounds so different to the other rooms in the house.. I used to record guitar in a bathroom.. nice and bright.