Well there is a local dealer that is willing to give me a GREAT deal on Revel and Wilson is just a brand I've been able to hear multiple times so I know how they sound. I'm pretty sold on the crescendos or the Vandersteen (leaning 60% to Crescendos, 30% to Vandy, 8% to Revel and 2% to Wilson... not to get to technical lol). But yeah you are right about the speakers and I have to do more listening before I drive the decision 100%. I love the idea of transmission line and I've had a chance to hear a couple examples and was very impressed. So anyway it's basically between the Vandy's and AZs.
A couple reasons for the integrated. They seem to be a pretty good value over separates and an integrated takes up less space. I'm sharing my 20 X 15 listening room with my office (not that big of a deal but still). I also wonder if having the wiring and circuitry closer together in an integrated actually produces a better end result as there is less distance for the signal to travel. So those are the reasons. Exceptions are absolutely possible to the integrated rule :)
One other note that shouldn't play a role but does- aesthetics are very important. If I'm spending that type of money I don't want it to look like a toaster. It's picky I know but there seem to be a lot of good options that look good.
Spencer- what is ASR? I've never heard of the brand and my google search didn't help me too much.