I'd look at a pair of Paradigm Studio 100s. They have great off axis response, great sound, and aren't extremely difficult to drive. Since you are going with a receiver I'm not sure I'd spend more than that on speakers because all a really incredible pair of speakers will do is show you how limited a receiver is sonically speaking. Spending too much of the overall budget on speakers is a very common rookie mistake. It could easily be a case of spending more money and getting worse overall sound.

What's your overall budget for the whole project?

A receiver is really three products built into one box:

1. AM/FM tuner: This is the part that picks up radio stations.
2. Preamplifier: Switches between the various sources (DVD, cable, video games)and controls volume.
3. Amplifier: Powers speakers.

Like a swiss army knife a receiver is convenient because of everything it can do, but it really isn't the ideal tool for any job. It's a jack of all trades, master of none.

An integrated amplifier is a receiver without the AM/FM tuner and they usually offer better sound quality because there are really high quality manufacturers building integrated amps. Receivers are built by the audio equivalent of Hyundai, Ford, etc. Whereas integrated amps are built by the audio equivalent of Honda, Lexus, and in some cases Lamborghini and Rolls Royce.

Sadly, there aren't any hard and fast mathematical rules to follow when building a system but those numbers are pretty good. If you are spending that kind of money the first thing to do is find a good dealer. The knowledge that a good dealer has when it comes to equipment matching can save you countless hours of research and thousands of dollar (in the long run) because you be making a good purchase the first time.