[Drivesthebeast]

Good choice on the Klipsch. If you get a sub though, there's no point in getting the floorstanding models, as they won't play ANY of the low bass if you use the dedicated sub output on a receiver, and regardless if you tell the receiver they are big.

Haven't heard the Focal stuff, but I HAVE listened to a LOT of speakers of all sizes, shape and price. Some speakers like Totem sound very good, but don't have any balls, and are beyond expensive...the stands alone for the bookshelf ones were $1600+ EACH.

Umm, I myself won't buy any Japanese receivers, as I don't feel they have the same amount of TRUE power that domestic suff has. Yeah, it's great that some have 100-150W per channel RMS, but that's at 6 ohms, 15 or less amps per channel, and at a lot more distortion. My parents bought a used HK AVR25 not too long ago, and it's supposed to be 45watts per chan in surround, and 55 watts per channel in stereo. It BLOWS AWAY the 110 watt per channel kenwood they used to have. It's just as loud, plays bass and fine detail at lower volumes, and it sounds cleaner overall. I used to have some Bowers and Wilkens Speakers with dual 8" woofers in them, and I had bought a Technics receiver that was supposed to be pretty good (it was the flagship for it's year), and it BLEW the voice coils in my speakers because is distorted so much all the time and moderate volumes. I sold it in disgust and had to go and buy some other gear to replace it and my blown speakers.

Still, it'll be cool to hear about what you decide to get...