Some guidance please?

Don't buy speakers at all. They just clutter up your listening room and cause you to buy all that expensive speaker wire from the wire bandits. Little kids always push in the tweeters and the cat is attracted to the grills. Skip the speakers altogether and spend the money you are saving on a better receiver.

Guilty on all counts! I would caution you that there is quite a bit of folderol on this site, though it must be less than on some others. If you doubt this check the chat section and click on "disputes". Audiogon stopped airing these openly about a year ago, but you will get the idea. Many center around the misgrading of gear but there are a lot of diputes regarding shipping damage as well. Which brings me to my next point. After turntables, speakers are the most likely items IMHO to suffer shipping damage. Go into shipping speakers eyes wide open, and deal with someone who is very familiar with shipping speakers. Double boxing can be a not inexpensive, but valuble option that I ususally require.

That said, there are many good speakers out there. Modern computer analysis and modeling has become a valuble tool that has really helped modern designers to deliver an incredible product at very modest prices. The best advice is to get out and listen to find out what your taste is. That said, I like the speakers designed in Canada with the help of the NRC; any time a government wants to pay for loudspeaker research that works just fine for me. The Paradigm and PSB brands are just great. Easy for your Denon to drive with robust sound, they make a lot of nice models to choose from as well. They tend to be well regarded and plentiful on the used market. Check out their websites. The Denon is a marvelous receiver; I was just being crass, as ususal. Viva la cats.
Marty

Congrats on finding great speakers for your system! There is no advice that can substitute for listening. Interestingly, in my bedroom system, I had the B&W 805s with Sound anchor stands, approximately $2000.00. When I heard the Paradigm Studio 20s with Premier stands I just loved them, so I traded down (about $825.00 retail) and couldn't be happier; I havn't looked back since. The reason that there are so many fine products is that we all value different things in the presentation of music. But there is a lot of junk out there as well.