Heres my plan, input please.

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.

We've all been down the twisted and thorny path you're starting to travel.

My sympathies.

The assistance of a good, local, high end dealer would be valuable to you.

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.

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 That is by design, as many manufactures produce product that is outdated right off the line.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.