recommendations for powerful but affordable receiver for old speakers?

[sometechieguy]

I have a pair of old Sony ss-c57 speakers I want to put to good use in a new home theatre. Any recommendations for speakers to compliment the old Sony's and a receiver that can handle them? The SS-C57's are tall speakers, 250 watt peak at 8ohm. I usually do with PA amps and speakers and am not sure I can trust the "130 watts per channel" rating on todays home theatre systems when I see them powering tiny hissing satellite speakers that could run on AA's and sub's that only generate physical vibrations but no real noise... (sarcastic exaggeration of course) in home theatre systems seem to have forgotten there used to be a mid range between the highs and the lows.

I'm not too picky about brands and have no preference between Sony, Technics, Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer... or others.