Hello All--

I am new to HT set up but am building a house and want to set this thing up right the first time. My budget is around $12K for all the components/wiring. If I can spend less then great but quality matters a lot. I've taken a couple of bids from some high end AV companies but have convinced myself that I can do this with the help of a couple of friends. The room for the home theater is 12 feet deep but 24' wide. A staircase separates the room into to halfs. The home theater system will be on the slightly wider side to get as much sitting space as possible. The couch will be pushed back as far as possible against the wall. So one of my main concerns is the positioning of the surrounds as they will be much closer to the listening area than all the other speakers. My plan is to mount some Axioum QS8's at around 54 inches. I am hoping that I will be able to calibrate the speakers so that there isn't a balance issue with the surrounds being too loud compared to the other speakers.

My other concerns and needs are:

1) Music is paramount. I have a huge collections of CD's and MP3's. I want the system to be very musical.. My interests include mostly hard rock/heavy metal/blues and some jazz. Pretty much anything that has great guitar work.

2) I want the system to be fully integrated with my computer system. I plan to have a dedicated server built to store all my MP3's, AVI's and can also be used for gaming. So any suggestions on video cards/sound cards that will work well with the following components will be greatly appreciated.

3) The system for the HT will be 5.1 due to the size of the room but I plan to buy a 7.1 system and use the extra 2 channels for my remote speakers around the house. There will be 10 sets of remote speakers. Mostly in ceiling.

4) I will be using a SlimDevices SqueezeBox to control my MP3's playing on the dedicated media server from around the house. If anyone has any experience with this unti, that would be great.

So as of today, I have narrowed the field to the following. Any comments or suggestions are really greatly appreciated.

Samsung HLN507W
Outlaw 950 Pre/Pro
Outlaw 770 Amp
Axiom M60 Front Speakers
Axiom VP150 Center
Axiom QS8 Surrounds
Axiom EP350 Sub(or possibly the Outlaw LFM-1 sub)

Denon DVD2900(not totally set on this) Any other suggestions welcome. It seems very expensive.

For cables and wiring I was going to go with the outlaw cables as they seem to be high caliber and a good value.

Another question is which of these has the best universal remote or do I need to buy a Harmony or Pronto type deal.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

CB