Well in my opinion it depends on what direction you plan to go. If music only is your direction which for most of us on this forum seems to be the most important part and the theater thing is a secondary thing I would suggest that to start find out what your realistic budget will be. There is no sense in looking at 3000 dollar speakers if your whole system budget is 2000 bucks. find out what your budget is then you can start to figure out how you can allocate it to get the best for your money. receivers are fine to start out with as long as you stay away from the cheaper stuff since they really scrimpt on the amplification and you will not see the best from your speakers. Another thing is think Used. Used equipment allows you to afford a hell of a lot better system for your set dollars and with so many outlets on the net for used gear you should have no problems finding stuff that will fill the bill. Another thing that a lot of people miss is to study the room that you are going to be running this equipment in to find out what type of speakers and how much power you will need in said room to get the results you want. brand loyalty is ok but I would keep myself open to what is out there and do your research and listen to everything to figure out what you like and what you don't. now picking out what speakers you will use is more up to your personal tastes and thoughts about what kind of sound you want. To start with if accuracy is the upmost importance if a person is starting out I would say a stand mount speaker design will almost allways give you more accurate response for the money when you are talking about a starting budget and if the budget allows seperate components are always preffered but not necessary. but when planning said system never forget that cables and interconnects play a big role in overall sound as well so don't go out and blow all of your money on components and then have to go to wall mart for speaker cable and interconnects because it will rob you of a lot of what you are after in the system in the first place. And never count out getting help from someone that has allready been through all of this and use their knowledge as a helping hand in your choice of components and how to set up this system. I know you kind of wanted to talk about brands of components but I believe these things need to be thought of before brands should be concidered. In todays world there are a lot of good gear out there and some of it does not cost a fortune and will do a beginner well for a starter system.