Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New to home stereo, need advice

I've spent several years upgrading my car stereo in the past, but had to give up car stereo 10 years ago for various reasons. Now I'm finding I spend most of my time at home listening to DVD's, music (MP3's) and 3D gaming.

What I'm trying to build is a PC/home 7.1 surround sound system. This stereo is going to be in a small room, about 14' x 14'. My 21" CRT monitor, 2 front speakers and center channel are on top of my computer desk (very sturdy) which is fitted in one corner of the room. The front speakers are about 3.5' from me.

My audio source is from my PC, a Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card (24 bit/96kHz audio, or 24bit/192kHz for DVD audio). It also has built-in DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX decoding for DVD movies and 7.1 surround.

This is in a house that is surrounded by about 100 acres so there is no limitation on how loud the bass or music can get (no neighbors to bother).

The reason I want to stick with 7.1 surround sound is that I have had this from a "cheap" $500 PC 7.1 stereo system (Creative's Gigaworks S750) and loved the effect with PC games. Unfortunately this system was not made for music reproduction...the tonal quality was AWFUL!

In terms of sound reproduction, I want faithful sound reproduction at volumes exceeding 100 dB. No clipping signal, no speakers breaking up, no significantly weaker soundstage, etc. Just the same effect created at nominal volume level, at a much higher volume level.

Given physics and speaker placement limitations, I might not be able to achieve those standards so I will settle with less if I have to. Also given speaker placement with the center channel being close to the monitor, the front/center speakers need to be magnetically shielded.

I'm looking at spending around $5,000 total, but I want to get the most for my money and be totally satisfied in spending that much. I'm not afraid to spend more to get more, but I'm not one to spend $1000 to gain a subtle difference in sound quality.

What amplifiers would you all reccomend and what speaker setups/brands would be good for my application? Also, would a CD player of some sort besides my PC CD/DVD player provide significanlty better sound quality from CD's?