Brad, welcome. My first suggestion is that since the budget for audio equipment won't allow for a full setup immediately, that besides the M80s you go with the QS8 surrounds at this time. The reason for this is that the M80s have quite good bass on their own and although the excellent EP500(which I use)should certainly be added later for movies especially, you can do quite well for nearly all music with the M80 bass. On the other hand, there's no substitute for the added realism which the QS8s bring to 2-channel music sources, using a mode such as DPLII. This extracts the surround ambience mixed into the front channels(there was no place else to put it)and sends it to the surrounds where it belongs, very significantly increasing the enjoyment of the music. I never listen to 2-channel source material on front speakers alone if surrounds are available.
As to the receiver, I'd suggest one of the full-featured Onkyo or Denon models with Audyssey MultEQ XT auto-calibration and room equalization. An outstanding buy at this time is the Onkyo 709 factory refurb(which should, from my study and personal experience, be at least as reliable as a brand-new unit)available for about $480 from
A4L here .
