A good receiver for Speakercraft speakers

The Phase Technology PC-2.5 center is 4ohms nominal impedance is it not?  What do you have your Speakercraft AIM3's set at? (I believe they are 4/6/8 ohm capable?).  I'm not sure how powerhungry the AIM3's are but they are listed at 150 watts...  Normally in-ceiling speakers aren't power hungry but these puppies may surprise. Since you have a 5.1 set-up, do you need future 7.1 capability for Dolby TrueHD?

That said, you could probably get away with any of the usual Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer AVR's available but if you want more robust amp sections to handle the 4 ohm impedance power demands, H/K tends to fare better.

If you want something different, consider getting and Emotiva UMC-1 ($699) pre/pro and pair it up with an Emotiva UPA-5 ($549) 5-ch amp.   However, this is probably overkill...

Finally, another option would be to look at offerings from NAD and Cambridge Audio but those cost quite a bit more that $1k.

JB

The only proplem I would see with the Onkyo is their reputation to run hot at presumably 8 ohms while a 4 ohm speaker would draw power more making it worse.

However, I can't see how your speakers would be particularly demanding and the Onkyo should perform adequately.  I run 4 in ceiling speakers (2 in kitchen and 2 in dining room) as well as a pair of PSB T5 speakers (living room) off of a 2ch NAD L53 rated at 50 wpc going through a splitter with no issues.  However, the NAD has a much more robust amp section than most mid-level AVR's and probably relates more closely to 100-150 wpc claims.

The other consideration is that you'll be sending most of the power hungry bass signal to your sub taking the load off the speakers which means the Onkyo should be more than adequate.

JB