Don't get me wrong, JL is nice, but it doesn't hold up to higher end speakers. A popular theory is that Rainbow makes the best speaker you can get. There are a lot of speakers out there that I have never heard of, and they get better reviews than most of the popular brands.
As far as amps go, Zapco or older Phoenix Gold is pretty high up there. I have been very impressed with the Audison amps that I have heard. I was looking at the JL line until I was educated. I actually heard an Audison right next to a JL amp, and the Audison blew it out of the water.