About 20 years ago, my wife got us a full Sony ES line with Kef speakers. Decent system and with children coming shortly worked for us.
The amp, GX57ES, went crazy. CD player and cassette likewise. Ultimately got both amp and cassette working again, but that is another story.
From the Sony I moved to the Onkyo A-9555, the first batch before Onkyo stopped and then restarted making them again. It got good reviews and did nice things with my Dahlquist DQM-9s.
I finally was able to build a 2 channel system and spent quite some time researching and assembling it. Thank you to many folks here for thoughts and opinions over the past few years. I finally have a Counterpoint SA-12. For a preamp I am using the Dolan PM1.
Next steps are... I am not sure yet. Right now I have Soundsmith Monarch speakers and love them. I think the driver for the next round of upgrades are when I get a fuller-range floor stander.