Heres my plan, input please.

If you have to ask, then no, you are not doing okay. Also, since you didn't list any associated gear or anything about the size of your room, how could anyone offer a meaningful opinion?

Getting back to that "Alphabet Soup..."

Plato, thanks for looking. I'm just trying to learn how to swim in this soup. The room is 14x16 I have been using Monitor Audio Book Shelf with a Sony AVR STR-V444ES but plan to replace it with a Denon 3808ci or maybe the new model B&K coming out next month. When it comes to the amps and pre- amps in the future, I'll have to swim there too. This stuffs in my living room thats why the SFs.

You will be fine, but at any rate who cares anyway?, its yours to enjoy and nobody else matters.

Trust your own ears and budget... not those of any so called local pro in the high end biz.

Very good results can come via receiver oriented systems... and they allow some flexibility along the way. Do keep to those with good power though... and again.. trust what your hearing from the components more so than what you are hearing from the "local pro"... unless of course, the pro isn't selling high end gear to you personally... and therefore has nothing to gain.

Audition what you can, and ask questions and research what you can not audition... oh, and the Soup?

...season to taste.

I wish to apologize to you, Tensnet, for the not so nice or helpful answers. Your associated equipment, now that it's listed, hasn't brought you any more specific answers. Sit back and enjoy is another way to of saying, "ignorance is bliss." And the assistance of a local dealer is very hit or miss.

The things you need to do are to read and listen. Read everything you can find about audio that isn't from a commercial source. Listen to lots of different equipment and systems. not to what anyone says about them.

Do your homework and you'll do okay.

Please be reminded how most of us have had the pleasure of engaging those high end dealers. Whoever follows this advise is a fool.There is less than one percent of dealers that have your best interest at hand. That is by design, as many manufactures produce product that is outdated right off the line. Looks good, and has some allies, but that is it. You will travel on the audio hamster cage. Many of us have good intention, like to be recognized by our trivial remarks, and to be honest need a life. Try getting together with some seasoned audiophiles in the nearest audio club, and put your ears on. Please be mindful of all the blowhearts out there. They can cost you a lot of money. Which by the way is becoming harder and harder to hold on too.

Sounds like a great plan. I'd say you really are on the right track. It is wise to think HT from the get go when starting out today. Secondly, using the same speaker manufacturer for all surround is extremely wise - many people ignore this, and mix and match everything. Typical manisfestation are many complaints that HT is vastly inferior to simple two channel stereo....well of course it is when you have a "dogs breakfast" of tonality in the same room!

I would add that you may not need the center channel if it is just yourself - try phantom and see how it sounds first. It may be better to get the center channel as the last item. I'd go subwoofer before center channel and then Cremona floorstanders next but that is just a personal preference...

welcome to the game-read all you can and demo everything--it seems you already decided to go ht route- that was my most diffcult decision as i use it 75% tv and hd tivo and 25% vinyl 50's jazz---i started with the cremonas, later added 4 auditors as the sides and rears( i think that was overkill in retrospect-only needed two but i got carried away), and then the cremona center channel and a dd15 sub--you don't necessarily need a center channel but if you use it a lot for tv you'll prob. want the center as ost of the dialog goes through that--i tried a lot of stuff but for my ear and needs ended up with mac 207/mx135 combo and a vpi scout----all bought used on agon-now a year later and in ht heaven i'm demo'ing higher end cables---you're starting out fine, just realize its the search for the holy grail and the more you know the more you want---have fun

Thank you one and all for taking the time to share your experience and offer your comments and suggestions, it is deeply appreciated.
The good news is.. I picked up the Auditors today and naturally couldn't wait to try them out so I set them on top of the console and plugged them in. They sound so good I think I'll leave them right where their at and not use the stands until later. The dealer suggested a REL B1 Sub Woofer, but I thik I'll leave it in the box until I research it. Tax rebates not going very far, guess I better get used to soup, but it's beginning to taste better already. Thanks again.
Cheers, Tensnet

Correction: It's the REL 10" 200W B3. I feel fairly con-fident about the purchase because so far the folks at Magnolia HI-Fi's flagship store here in Seattle have been very helpful.
cheers,

REL 10" 200W B3.

Check the HT Shack Subwoofer tests BEFORE you open this box.

IMD Distortion Tests Example

There are pages and pages of detail - I just included one example page. It is a real eyeopener. Performance is quite variable.