Onkyo 875 & stereo amp Versus 705/805 for music performance?

[Beansprout]

Looking to get some better music performance from my system, which consists of an Onkyo 605 driving some B&W 685s with a REL Quake.

I think the first stop is to upgrade the speakers to floorstanders (say Monitor Audio Silver RS6 or the B&W 684s), but is that money better spent on a better stereo amplification method in the first place, before fiddling with speakers?

So as title really - what do you reckon?

Edit: Ooops, the title is wrong. What I mean is:

How good is the Onkyo 875 for music, when compared to using say the 705 with its preouts going to a stereo amp. So in other words, spending the ~£400 price difference on an amp.

 

[Beansprout]

I would test them out with some speakers at a good stereo shop. Only way you are going to get a definitive answer as to which would give you better result, but would guess at the stereo amp + AV would give better reproduction.

Sales guy only seemed interested in pushing the 875s they had on offer

May go back when the other guy is there