I used to have an old 80's vintage Pioneer stereo receiver. I also had an old Marantz amp that was built very well. Now it's like, time to go all new!

Anyway, the salesman suggested what you said: "Go with the same rears as the fronts, and keep the same brand for the center speaker. So, this is $400 per pair x 2 + $350. The brand was "Monitor." Never heard of them, but found them on the web. Aparently made in the UK. We listend to a variey of music, then he put on a music video that was very cool. This is actually less than I thought I would have to spend on speakers. But I thought I would go with a lower end pair for the rears, since less sound comes out of them, but I would not want to colorize the sound and not be too thrilled in the end.

And the guy said that the sub is an entirely seperate thing. I'm not looking to shake the house but I do want tight bass. A kick drum needs to sound realistic not "muddy" or "boomy." I have always like the output of a 12" sub, so I was looking in that direction. It's also going to need to carry some sub-audio for DVD FX (earthquakes, etc!).