suddenly i feel the need to have some good sounds at home, so my budget is tight...and someone selling VSX-C301 for $100, should i buy that to go with m60 to start? i don't know how fast receiver price drop, i think if it is like computer price and VSX-C301 is good enough to start, maybe i should get it and buy a better one later?
Thanks!

As long as your room is not to big and you don't like your music really loud, this should do fine to get you hooked.

However, be aware that the 75 watts per channel of power it advertises up front is at 6ohms and most speakers (including the M60s) are 8ohms. If you read down further in the specs, it's only rated for 40 watts at 8ohms. That is a bit concerning.

Personally, I would look for something with a little more power but in the end, staying within your budget might be the deciding factor.

While I'm at it, I should mention I'm unfamiliar with the way the power is laid out in their specs. Perhaps somebody could clarify for both of us what "DIN1 kHz 1,00 %" refers to.

Power output per channel 75 W (6 Ohm)
Rated Power Output 40 W + 40 W DIN1 kHz, 1,00 %, 8 Ohm

DIN is the German standards board, it is like the US's FTC rating. Except instead of 20-20k, the DIN measuring standard only requires a 1k Hz sine wave. Expect less than 40 Watts/channel with actual content.

I like Pioneer, but I wouldn't pay $100 for that receiver.

I was just looking around. It is $200, but Pioneer's new VSX-519V-K looks to be a very nice receiver for the price. While it only has 2 HDMI ports they do support PCM (no HD codecs, but I prefer to do the decoding in the player anyway)--that's better than most receivers in this price range which only offer HDMI switching. 110 Watts x5 channels @8 Ohms (doesn't say in the specs, but I'm guessing all channels driven 20-20k it'll do about 85). Plus it is 5.1 so you can get started working on surround sound. All-in-all it's pretty impressive.

thank you Clubneon and Murph, any recommendation for receiver?