Heres my plan, input please.

Trust your own ears and budget... not those of any so called local pro in the high end biz.

Very good results can come via receiver oriented systems... and they allow some flexibility along the way. Do keep to those with good power though... and again.. trust what your hearing from the components more so than what you are hearing from the "local pro"... unless of course, the pro isn't selling high end gear to you personally... and therefore has nothing to gain.

Audition what you can, and ask questions and research what you can not audition... oh, and the Soup?

...season to taste.

Please be reminded how most of us have had the pleasure of engaging those high end dealers. Whoever follows this advise is a fool.There is less than one percent of dealers that have your best interest at hand. That is by design, as many manufactures produce product that is outdated right off the line. Looks good, and has some allies, but that is it. You will travel on the audio hamster cage. Many of us have good intention, like to be recognized by our trivial remarks, and to be honest need a life. Try getting together with some seasoned audiophiles in the nearest audio club, and put your ears on. Please be mindful of all the blowhearts out there. They can cost you a lot of money. Which by the way is becoming harder and harder to hold on too.

I wish to apologize to you, Tensnet, for the not so nice or helpful answers. Your associated equipment, now that it's listed, hasn't brought you any more specific answers. Sit back and enjoy is another way to of saying, "ignorance is bliss." And the assistance of a local dealer is very hit or miss.

The things you need to do are to read and listen. Read everything you can find about audio that isn't from a commercial source. Listen to lots of different equipment and systems. not to what anyone says about them.

Do your homework and you'll do okay.

Sounds like a great plan. I'd say you really are on the right track. It is wise to think HT from the get go when starting out today. Secondly, using the same speaker manufacturer for all surround is extremely wise - many people ignore this, and mix and match everything. Typical manisfestation are many complaints that HT is vastly inferior to simple two channel stereo....well of course it is when you have a "dogs breakfast" of tonality in the same room!

I would add that you may not need the center channel if it is just yourself - try phantom and see how it sounds first. It may be better to get the center channel as the last item. I'd go subwoofer before center channel and then Cremona floorstanders next but that is just a personal preference...