]Speakers -- I don't care how good the room person is, unless you like a really dead room (and I don't think they sound very good), I think you need to try to find a speaker thats off-axis response very closely resembles its on-axis response, so reflected sound is at least in the same ball park as direct sound. I'm not sure exactly how you do that, given that most manufacturers don't publish such measurements and almost no reviewers pay any attention to off-axis response. Beyond that, buy what you like; speakers are the right place to choose your color because they're going to be colored no matter what you choose.
Amps? There are more than a couple of people here who will disagree with this, but I'm of the opinion that if two amps with more than sufficient power for the load sound signigicantly different, one of them is Wrong; capital W. Assuming that amps in the high ranges you're talking about are, at least, going to do an adequate job of driving the speakers, the differences between them should be small enough that I don't know how you can make a call between them without having them in your system where you can readily switch back and forth between them and closelly compare them in context. Personally I'd pick my speakers, then look at the universe of amps of robust build quality with way more headroom than I need, buy the least expensive of the lot, and put the rest of the money into new music.
Tim
Decide on a budget, then decide on speakers. Choose an amp that seems to work well, if it doesn't then amps are relatively easy to swap out and good ones tend to hold their value (especially if you bought used or well-discounted in the first place). With the rate at which source components are improving and changing today (e.g. DSD DACs) it doesn't make much sense to me to try to lock in a choice there.
