Newbie amp help......why?

You already have an amp.

Kevin, I would encourage you to invest some time listening to a range of hi-end systems. This will help you discern the differences in various types of equipment and the attributes that components can provide to the audio experience. You may discover a whole world of sonic possibilities and performance.

Does your receiver have "Pre-amp out" jacks on the back? If so, you could continue using the tuner and pre-amp sections of the receiver, and hook up a better quality power amp to drive the speakers (bypassing the amplifier section in the receiver). But the signal from the CD player would still be going through the pre-amp section of your Pioneer, so I'm not sure how much would be gained by this. It's all about quality--not volume levels. So I would second Maineiac's recommendation.

ok i kinda understand. i will look to see if it has pre amp outputs. so if i added a amp thats 100wpc it would actually be less power to thje speakers than the regular amp in the pioneer. i was thinking the golds may need more power to run them accurately....is this true? thanks for the replies kevin

Taking it one step further, call around and find a dealer who carries 2 or 3 brands of tube amplifier, and go listen to those. For many people, a tube amp will provide sonics that much more closely resemble live instruments. As others have said, it's not about volume. There are different types of distortion, and tube amps tend to perform in a way that its distortions bother the ear less than the most solid state amps. This is true regardless of how many boxes you are talking about(e.g. receiver vs. amp/pre/tuner separates).
If you don't hear anything that makes your heart beat a little quicker, save your money and buy more music. Cheers,
Spencer