Advice on first HT equipment and setup.

OK, I'd start with a receiver in the $500-ish range that is strong at both audio and video (Yamaha HTR-6060 comes to mind), a DVD player good at displaying standard DVD's even on an HDTV (the Oppo DV-980H gets a lot of buzz), and speakers that match well with your existing ones. PSB, Paradigm, and NHT are some speaker brands I would look at. What speakers do you currently have?

Also consider getting a good budget sub. Look at brands such as Hsu, Velodyne, Vandersteen, PSB, etc. IMHO, high quality subs that can integrate well with speakers are less important in an HT setting.

Don't spend much on cables. I'd recommend swapping the bananas at the speaker end, rather than the amp end, because the speaker is more likely to be easily accessible.

Good luck!

Michael

The JMLab 926 are nice speakers. Full-bodied sound but detailed. I would try to match it with other JMLabs (Chorus series I think is in your budget). Otherwise consider PSB or Totem. You can get away with using monitors in the rears since there's usually less sound directed to the rear speakers. (I know, it's not absolute, but works most of the time.) You could also get PSB Stratus series speakers that are floorstanders for the rears (consider the Silvers) and a center channel as well. All in budget.

Michael