Noob, need help please

if you want the best of both worlds some great audio companies make home theater amps
like arcam , parasound or nad but pricier than 1k .usually stereo is better than 5.1 or whatever they do these days(19.8?) just for music.you can't go wrong with marantz or denon for home theater and 1k is great for those get the best you can within your budget. a center speaker is a must for 5.1 .

All good comments above to get you thinking about what is a priority, and to start listening and pick what is best for your budget.

If going the Receiver route, I would make sure that it has pre-outs, then in the upgrade path you could add and amp for two channel listening, amp/s for other channels and then replace the receiver with a pre-amp.

A center channel is one of the most important for home theater.  All of the dialogue comes out of that speaker and the rest are for sound affects to create dimension.

Quality is definitely my main priority. 
If I go the preamp and amp route instead of the AV receiver route, is it possible to have a setup which will allow me to add in a center and rears in the future?

Apologies for my lack of understanding. stereo means 2 channel right? Which means that a 2 channel amp will only allow me to add my towers and not my sub?

What is an integrated amp? Any downsides?

rocknss your approach to the setup sounds interesting. Can you please explain more about this? I’m not well educated in all this but learning slowly, please have patience.

To answer your question from above, an integrated amp has no tuner for AM and FM but integrates a preamplifier and an amplifier into one unit.

 Somethng to seriously consider. So many people have gotten into and out of home theater that I think it would be crazy not to take the option initially to look for a working home theater receiver or integrated by a top-notch brand at a thrift store. They’re going for nothing. That way for practically no expense you’ll be able to find out what you like and don’t like. I know that where I live Goodwill allows a seven-day no questions return policy. You can Google the models on the phone while you’re looking at them and see what they cost initially. It will give you some sense of relative quality. The most common speakers to find there are center channels so I would keep my eyes open for a Klipsch that may be compatible with the ones you have. The two pieces pieces are very likely to cost you far less than $100. Don’t buy the very first one you see but look around. As well as the brands mentioned I would look for Pioneer ELITE. What can you lose? It’s just a place to start. Most importantly you’ll learn a lot in the process.