As another amateur audiophile, I'll throw my .02 in as well. If you are looking to put in a HT system in a specific room, before you walk in to BestBuy or wherever and get blown away by the ZOMGELEVENTYPOINTONESPEAKERS! systems, think about where you are going to place these things. I bought a Onkyo 7.1 system and to this day haven't placed the side surrounds since doing so would require fishing wire through walls and running it through the crawl space under the floor in my living room. That being said, I would +1 Denon, Onkyo, and Panasonic. -1 Samsung, Sony. If it looks chintzy on the outside, chances are the electronics inside are just as bad. Home theater in box's aren't bad, just make sure that the receiver is decent and with the inputs/outputs you want. Don't worry about the speakers, chances are you'll be replacing them in a few years for something that doesn't suck.