I have acutally found a pair of Kef (brand new and not cosmetically flawed) iQ7s for $634 for and iQ9s for $848 (before shipping anyway) although the iQ9s are black, and not one of the woodgrain (cherry/dark apple, walnut, maple/beech) finishes I was looking. But at that price it is definitely worth considering at the very least.

By the way, I will be using either a Denon AVR-887, or Onkyo TX-SR804. Is the quality of these receivers too low to make a difference between the speakers I've been asking about. Or would I have to jump up to $1500+ receiver to be able to tell a difference anyway?