Components of the same brand will not necessarily work better together. Maybe if there is some sort of proprietary connection such as the Denon Link. In any case, I'd imagine a Sony receiver would do you just fine. Currently I have a Sony, a Denon, and a Kenwood. Denon is by far the best of the lot, then the Kenwood. My Sony works fine, as long as I do not push it very hard. I used to have some 6 ohm 91 db speakers and the Sony would heat up quickly and go into protect mode. I now use it for my computer system with 8 ohm speakers and much lower volumes, it still gets very hot but has not gone into protect mode lately.
I think Sony gets a bad rap because the majority of Sony purchases are from the lower end (like my STR-DE995) and are just average. Sony does make many fine receivers such as the ES line. I just don't think you hear much about them, and most AV nuts don't bother with Sony because of the stigma attached to the lower end models. Of course thats just what I think and may have no bearing on reality
