Ideal Complete System for $5000

Five Quad 12l active monitors for $1650 and a good $1000 subwoofer(or a pair of $500s). Then get a top notch pre pro that is a couple years old and some mogami XLR cables from eBay.

Use the rest of the money for a vacation.

AV123 is offering a deal on a pair of X-Statiks and once X-Voce Center Channel for $999. Add a second pair of X-Statik's for $499. Get the Oppo mentioned above. That leaves $3000 for all the rest, including sub, pre-pro, cables, and the vacation Robr45 referred to.

I'm sure AV123 is offering some great deals in lieu of the problems the owner is having.

I like Robr45's suggestion for using powered speakers .

I believe that you will get better sound reproduction than using an A/V receiver or seperate pre/pro & amp , in that price range . Also , you will not have to worry about the synergy between the amp and speakers and can consentrate more on the quality of the signal processing and unit features .

The only real downside is speaker placement in relation to wall recepticles for power . And the I/C's for the back speakers might be tough to find , economically .

Good luck .

i like the idea of building your system a bit at a time as well. Frankly on a bang for the buck standpoint not all elements are equal. If I had to do it I would go 2.1 to start with. Add surrounds later to go 4.1 and finish with a center last to hit 5.1. If you start with a compromise now that you are not exactly happy with you will always be bugged and now you have a built in hindrance to getting where you want to be, that is to say you will need to dump the old and get all new. Note that a good 2.1 system will serve you well as there is not really that much content on the rears (in most films) and good fronts will easily deal with the dialog tracks.