I suggest you call Acoustic Sounds in Salina, Kansas, (785-825-8609), give them the information you've provided here as well as some budget specifics, and ask for their advice. They're a first class outfit, able to offer you expert advice and a wide array of choices, and shipping from them to you should be about as good as you might hope for. Good Luck, and welcome.

A couple of others that might be worth considering are Upscale Audio , I've not done business with Kevin Deal, but if I didn't have a local dealer that I liked, I would. Underwood HiFi would also be tempting and our own, Jim T. thinks highly of Wally.

Still, names like NAD, Cambridge Audio, Jolida, all come to mind for good value on a modest budget. I think the Jolida 1501 RC integrated sounds really good and is an outrageous bargain. I liked it better than several amps costing twice as much. You can even order it with a sub output to take advantage of your booomer.

Have you considered used gear? If you know what you want www.audiogon.com has lots of good used gear. Buying used you can get more power and/or higher quality for less.

For the price,you can't beat Audio Source,They have good specs,beefy power supplies,balanced input and outputs,and they'll drive 2 ohm loads.