Can you describe your room, and why it is not ideal for surrounds according to JC?
Right now my upstairs setup has M22's, a VP100 center, and 350 sub, it it works very good for movies and music. There is no way you will get the same experience with just a front stage, compared to if surrounds are included. At some point I plan to add some Qs8's on stands or wall mount but will have to fish new wiring down from the attic.
A receiver has the processing and amplification integrated into one unit, versus having seperates (preamp and amplifier). A lot has to do with your room size and how loud you want to listen to music and movies. For most people a receiver in the 100-130 watts/ch would be fine. However, if your one of these people that like to try and achieve as close to true concert/orchestra and reference cinema movie levels, you might want to look at good seperates. They are built more robust and have more headroom to accomodate those dynamic peaks needed without runing out of gas.
