Help a confused newbie build his first setup...

Isn't Sound by Singer no longer (at least as a B&M retailer?)

A question, what do you love about music? If you can figure out how to quantify this, that will go a long way to helping you choose a path.

I don't know what kind of music you play, but it likely has an influence in this. I'm a drummer myself and if equipment can't be articulate in the bottom end and provide correct tone on acoustic drums, I'm not interested (no horns for me). Maybe you are a bass player and you want something that "swings", so SET might interest you. Whatever the case, knowing what moves you will help.

Bottom line, don't think about a piece of equipment, think about what you want the total package to deliver. Listen to as many systems as possible and seek something that makes you sit up and take notice. Then figure out how to get your first piece of it. For me, I started looking for an amp and ended up with a pair of speakers (ProAc Response 1SC) that have lasted multiple amp and other equipment changes. That vivid sound grabbed me and i new that was what I wanted - even if the total package I heard was 10x what I could spend at the time, I knew the path I wanted to peruse and got the biggest piece first.

Lastly, I know you said you wanted room filling sound, but if you were to consider a nice pair of headphones and a head amp, you could spend $1,000 and get quality that will cost you $10,000 to match in a full setup. Worth considering.

Good luck.

Aldres

First off you have a pretty good sized room, and I agree with those who recommend a floor standing speaker. I don't think monitors will give you enough "fill". Plus you want the sound to extend inro the additional rooms. Secondly don't buy without listening. Period. Plenty of people I know LOVE B&W speakers. If I had taken their advice and bought them without listening first I would have been an unhappy man. They're not my cup of tea. Only you can judge what you will or won't like. That feeling of realizing that you don't like the sound of the piece of equipment that you just bought because of positive reviews or recommendations, without auditioning first, is really a drag. I'll never do it again. If I haven't heard it, I'm not buying it.
The question of buying speakers or upstream equipment first continues to be debated. The true question is which is more important. Good speakers make mediocre equipment sound pretty good, and the opposite is also true. Mediocre speakers make good equipment sound mediocre. Your stereo cannot sound better than your speakers. Spend a little more on your speakers.
Now here's my recommendation. Take your $1000 and go out and buy a pair of used Vandersteen 2Ci speakers, usually in the $450 range. Take the rest and see if you can't find a good used Rotel or NAD Monitor series preamp/amp combination. Or even a nice Luxman integeated unit. These should be in the $350 range. That will leave you with a little left over money to buy some good speaker cable. Any of those upstream combos will sound pretty good, and the Vandersteens are, IMO, far and away the best used speaker you can buy for the money. They have great bass extension, they don't enhance the music, and they will carry well into the next room. Plus they are just so wonderful to listen to. But whatever you do, don't buy without listening first, and give yourself some perspective by listening to a lot of stuff before you buy.
Good Luck, Martin.