TheDon

I wanted to thank all of the responses from Dr. Who & Chris Robinson. Chris, definitely read between the lines for the Family Room set up. The WAF is the reason for the in wall speakers. The wife did not want the family room full of speakers, so I am "forced" to comprimise until I get to the basement. Then her input will be limited. I will definitely look for the klipschorns for my basement. Based on all responses, I assume there will be some difference with the in wall speakers, but not enough to justify spending too much money on them for this first project.

Thanks for the feedback. I wiill definitely check out the speakers & info you suggested.

As far as waiting until I can afford more of the high end stuff, I will definitely do that. This unit is for our family room for a house I am moving into in about a week. I want something decent to listen to up there, but I will definitely want the some better equipment for the basement once I finish it. So, I would entertain the synergy or the reference speakers. I noticed the reference speakers had great range, but do you have any experience with the synergy & do they put out a decent sound? I know the output is based off of the receiver too, but I wanted someone who has some Synergy or Reference in wall speakers in their house that they would actually recommend. I wanted to keep the family room low-end, but I don't want to waste money by trying to be too cheap. If it cost a few hundred more to get the reference speakers & be happy, I would, but otherwise if synergy will create a decent sound to begin my home theatre experience, I would do those too. My family room is about 18 x 23 with a 9 foot ceiling. Open to any suggestions.

Thanks for the ideas Fish. I will try to look at some of the better receivers mentioned. Is there a particular make & model that you would recommend based on your experience? I'm open to any suggestions, because I have seen some receivers on ebay new, but I did not know which ones to purchase. You have given me some technical info to look at too, but I like word of mouth for a good reference. As far as the speaker cable, there are no long speaker runs. Probably 15-20 feet at most, so I don't think I will run into any signal loss.

I am working with about a $1500 budget. I have a family room about 17x22 & I wanted ideas about equipment, amps, speakers, etc. I am a true newbie & first time surround sound purchaser. I wanted to know what type of receiver to purchase. I have a hi-defintion tv receiver that I would want to add to it along with a dvd player, disc changer, & vcr(for the old stuff). My home has been prewired with 14 gauge wire for 2 in-wall front & 2 in-wall rear speakers. Center channel speaker can be placed on top of the big screen. I noticed where most of the klipsch speakers used12 gauge cable & since my home is already wired with 14 gauge wire, I wanted to if the Klipsch in wall speakers could be adjusted to work with that cable guage. I would like a reciever with at least 90-100 watts per channel & possibly the ablility for the ipod to be attached(but not a necessity), but I really don't know what to buy & really reaching for some ideas. Please don't hold back on any suggestions.