The best advice is to become your own expert and don't listen to that dealer. Floorstanders are not bettert than standmounts for music or much of anything else - THEY CAN BE but so can the reverse. The Onkyo versus the Yammie - buy whichever feature-set you like best at the lowest price. I liked the two channel Onkyo i heard over the Yamaha but that was 2 years ago at the $600.00Cdn price level. So who knows. I doubt they'd be much different.

Klipsch - some are ebtter than others - The dealer made comments about a brand he does not sell - ignore those comments because he has a conflict of interest.

It's really a matter of you listening and i don't mean just to this price level. Listen to stuff you can't afford. Try some up there two channel rigs - listen to those with movies compared to the cheaper multichannel surround rigs - you might be surprised.