Hi-Fi wanna-be needing advice on an Amp purchase

McCormack DNA-1, they are pertty reasonable & sound damn good for the $$

I think Gthirteen was refering to the Sony TA-F808ES integrated amp, not a receiver. While not easy to find, it is IMO, a sweet piece of gear and can be had for a lot less than a grand. I do agree that for the money, buying a integrated makes the most sense because that Yammie is still going to be bright.

IMO, Paradigm and Anthem make a great match. Both Paradigm
and Anthem are owned by the same parent company -- often
you get good synergy that way. Anthem MCA amps [and the
AVM20 processor] are a great value. You will get far better
sound with separates -- you saw that with your test drive.

Gotta recommend the Odyssey Stratos. I have the 60v2s as well and I have the Stratos amp and it was a truly amazing difference over my 5 channel amp.

I agree that the Yamaha will not sound very good as a preamp when you get a better amp, but if you don't want ultimately to go the integrated route, I would still stick to your plan and start with the amp (trying to match it best to your speakers, room, and listening habits - and don't spend for more power than you'll need if you could use that same money to go lower-power but higher-quality), then go on to the preamp (and its interconnects) as the next step. For many reasons that I've discussed before but won't go into again here, I believe it makes the most sense to begin upgrading at the speakers and then work back from there toward the sources, which in your case means the step at hand is upgrading the amp, either with a power amp or an integrated, along with the speaker cables if you haven't already. Try to audition anything you are considering buying (preferably on your speakers, most preferably in your listening room if possible), playing your music, and in direct comparision to one another where possible.