I figured it was about time I had an actual reciever. I've always heard great things about Denon, so I bought their AVR-1604 from Magnolia Hi-Fi. It's only 75 watts x 6 channels, but that's more than I need in my little apartment. Of course, it has all the decoders from Pro Logic II to DTS-ES, and has more settings and tweaks than I can even comprehend after reading the manual twice.
For the speakers, Good Guys had a hella good deal on the Energy Take 5.2 System with the Take S8.2 subwoofer included. These speakers are pretty cheap, but the sound really impressed me. I'm sure there are better speakers out there, but not for the price I paid. At any rate, the whole set up really blows away my old system.
I decided this would be another great opportunity to tear down my entire home theater system and rebuild it again. It was pretty necessary because I had to move around the components to make way for the huge reciever, and I had to pull out all the old speaker wiring anyways. This turned into a whole weekend project, and Danielle was recruited to help out. She was a good sport about it, offering her industrious and dilligant services without complaint.
The project only had one major snag: One of the satellites was deffective, so I had to take it back to Good Guys. They gave me a new speaker in exchange without too much hassle, so I will give them a break about lying to me about their sale ending within moments of me walking into the store.
I still think they're bastards, though.
Anyway, time for lunch. Later I'll post some pictures of my new toys.