All:

Thank you for the great replies. Bob Becker in particular THANKS for the great reference to the Gonk College of Home Theater and Audio, which I'm including again here to simply reinforce its value.

http://prillaman.net/ht_dvd_index.html

Also thanks for all the suggestions KOYAAN and TMH, and Xenon/AvMan for the tips. Clearly I need to do some Gonk studying to evaluate them all. But given a small (relatively) budget (prob under $1k) I think most likely I'm going to invest in an amp and speakers, ultimately ending up with:

HTPC > amp > speakers

...which given what I've been suffering with, will be a huge step up I hope? we'll see.....

Try this for inexpensive systems and advice.

http://www.hometheatermag.com/buyersguides/htibs/

Should you proceed and get your self some new speakers, I guarantee it Welcome to the Saloon. Check out the Audiogon.com site for deals on used speakers after you do some research on what you will purchase!

Look at the Outlaw outlet on the home page. There are some Atlantic Technology speakers at a great price. You can audition them at home and send them back if you don't like them.

These speakers are going to be ready for sale in about a month (the first shipment is in the water).
http://tweakcityaudio.com/index.php?page...uemart&Itemid=1
I haven't heard them but Danny Ritchie is an excellent designer.

For a two channel integrated amp I would highly recommend the Virtue One/Two (I have the Two):
http://store.virtueaudio.com/product-p/vrtu-ia-ap11-1.htm
You can also switch a jumper inside to use it as a power amp. The virtue, however, does not have a remote control so if that is important you might want to look at the Outlaw RR2150, although, that would blow most of your budget.

For a subwoofer there is b-stock Outlaw LFM-1 Compact available right now (b-stock have free shipping). The Outlaw subs are excellent or look at the HSU STF-2 as another good candidate:
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/stf-2.html

edit:
You know, Emotiva is just releasing a product that I was hoping Outlaw would do. An analog stereo preamp with HT bypass. What this means is that normally you would use it for all you music listening, but if at a later date you decided to go multi-channel you use an AVR and select the home theater bypass when watching movies. The bottom line you get the best sound for music and still benefit from multi-channel.
http://emotiva.com/usp1.shtm

So:
Emotiva USP-1 $400
Virtue One $290
WAF-1 $230
-------------------
$920

That would be an excellent future ready system and add a subwoofer later or substitute the subwoofer for the USP-1 using manual volume control and pick up the USP-1 later.

hey folks, just want to say thanks again for all the assistance/pointers. i am a "both feet first" type of guy and given what I'm coming from ANYthing is going to be a huge improvement. thanks to both commentary here and my own brief research I think I'm going to take the plunge here:

• VirtueONE with the upgraded 30v power supply (http://store.virtueaudio.com/product-p/vrtu-ia-ap11-1.htm) -- thanks dvenardos
• Ascend 340SEs (http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cmt340m/cmt340m.html) -- $518 shipped for a pair

At this point I'm going to simply go HTPC > V1 > speakers and as I upgrade in the future I will add a sub and then individually build from there.

Whaddya think?!

This sounds like a nice music setup!

That's an interesting amplifier. Please let us know how that works out for you.

Ascend has a great reputation, that should be a fabulous two-channel system.

Congrats,
Don

thanks all, I will report back when I get this thing fired up, though I suspect my report will be as uninformed and worth as much as my initial question...

I am cross-posting this at the Ascend forums as well but the one thing I failed to think about before yesterday was the shape/size of my room. i'm pasting a drawing below but basically we have a big one: 30x15 for the main "living area," but it's an open floorplan, so the kitchen is really part of a larger room that's in total 30x24. the TV sits near the center but diagonally facing the center of the living room.

i plan to put the speakers next to the TV. foresee any major problems?

(dark blue are walls for entryway and hallway)