Some amplifier questions

Two important questions are 1) how important is sound quality for that 10% of music and 2) what speakers are you using and how hard are they to drive?

I'm guessing music will be more of a secondary thing and so sound quality not of the utmost importance although you obviously want it to at least sound good. And if the speakers aren't a particularly hard load and considering you're listening at relatively low levels in a relatively small room with a sub it doesn't sound like you'll need all that much power. I'd go for something like a Yamaha RXV375 ($250 or less new), which probably has enough power for your needs and gets decent reviews for sound quality versus other receivers in the price range. The biggest remaining question would be if it has all the features/connections you need or want. Given what you described I think getting a separate amp/prepro might be a bit overkill for this situation. Hope this helps and best of luck.

What's your budget for the receiver and speakers (including the sub)?

Since 90% of your time will be watching TV the center speaker will be of particular importance and I'd try to get the best one that fits your space and budget. Personally I like either using a monitor speaker (preferably matching the L/R speakers), but as this is not usually practical due to speaker height I'd choose a center with the tweeter located atop a dedicated midrange driver and then flanked by two midwoofs (I have been underwhelmed by center speakers that have two midwoofs flanking a single tweeter). Something like the Aperion Intimus 5C may be ideal as it comes in this configuration and is also less than 8" in height. Add their matching 5B bookshelves and an SVS PB1000 sub and you'd have the beginnings of a nice full-range system that's relatively economical and doesn't take up a lot of space. Paradigm also makes a Center1 speaker (and matching monitors) that would also fit your space and has a similar configuration, but at that price level I'd go with Aperion's silk dome tweeter over the Paradigm's metal dome, but that's personal preference. Given the size of your room I'm not sure I'd want to use tower speakers without a sub as they'd need to be pretty large to get bass near that of a subwoofer and may overwhelm your room visually and sonically.

As for electronics, an important consideration is the effectiveness of any room/speaker correction as that can make a big difference in what you ultimately hear especially in a smaller room. I'm not familiar with how the Oppo performs in this regard, but if it does well then maybe purchasing the Aperion speakers/SVS sub and the Emotiva amp mentioned above might make for an excellent combination for your situation/purposes (and I believe all offer nice in-home trial periods). If the Oppo doesn't do a good job with room correction it may be worth considering a decent AV receiver instead. Something like a Yamaha RXV475 should work perfectly fine for this application unless you want to spend considerably more for separates or a better AVR, but given this is mainly for lower volume TV watching I'm not sure it's worth the added expense. For whatever it's worth...

Here's a link with a brief description of what room correction does. If you go to the bottom and click the FAQ section there will be answers to many other questions you may find helpful as well. In a nutshell, even getting stereo speakers to sound balanced in a room can be a challenge, but add to that a center channel and a sub and the task gets exponentially harder -- especially regarding integrating the sub properly. These programs can be very helpful in setting the proper levels for each speaker while also taming a room's particular influence on the sound -- one of the most neglected and important aspects of achieving really great sound.

http://www.audyssey.com/technologies/multeq/how-to

One of the gold standards right now is Audyssey MultEQ XT32, but you'd have to pay up a bit to get that right now and as this is not a super-critical listening environment you have to decide whether this is worth it. Given your application here I'm not so sure it is and that one of the very good mid-level correction programs in the cheaper receivers/prepros wouldn't be more than fine. There are many out there (me included) who will say room correction along with speaker selection will have the biggest absolute impact on what you ultimately hear. Not that everything isn't important -- it most certainly is from an ultimate qualitative standpoint -- but in terms of the magnitude of impact on what you ultimately hear this has been my experience.

I once helped a guy set up a home theater on which he spent about $15,000 on very good speakers and electronics, but his beloved antique cabinet would only house a 42" widescreen TV. What a crime. I think letting a cabinet dictate your choices is a frustrating (and avoidable) situation given how many cabinet types/sizes there are out there, and unfortunately your 7" height restriction is going to rule out a lot of great center speakers and significantly reduce your remaining choices -- at least for a good center speaker (even a third LS50 is too tall). Too bad, especially since you're rightly very concerned about dialogue clarity. It's a great pet peeve of mine too and why personally I wouldn't compromise on the quality of a center speaker. Hopefully you'll get some workable recommendations from the good folks here.

That said, I do agree with Dbphd that if your front L/R speakers are capable of producing clear mids and image well and your listening position is close to midway between the two speakers you might be very happy (and maybe even happier) without a center speaker. I had such a setup for several years and didn't miss a center channel one bit. Personally I'd rather have dialogue reproduced by two high-quality speakers than one compromised speaker if that ends up being the choice, but like I said maybe you'll get some good recommendations that will preclude that from being the case. Again, best of luck.

Pgawan2b,

If this was a furniture/home decor website I'd say fine -- whatever blows your skirt. But on this site and in this company, matching $15k of electronics with a 42" TV is a crime.