I've been mulling over many-a-options on what to do next. Many of you have steered me in the direction of getting my speakers first...but that was before my potential problem. I'm in the state of what you call...ANXIOUS! I have an old 5.1 Sony receiver which handles 4 ohms, so naturally I've been looking at the M80s. But...that receiver has had problems of late. It's in the shop as we speak. It may or may not make it out in one piece. I brought it home last week and my right surround just went out 2 days after I brought it back home. They say it may not be repairable, my problem. So I'm stuck with the inevitable. REPLACEMENT!
The obvious dilema is...I want to buy M80s...which is short of a grand if get the factory seconds. Now I need to go out and buy something that will handle 'said' speakers. I've tossed between seperates and all-in-one units. The only reason I would go all-in-one is to get up and running faster and then buy a seperate amp later (thus creating seperates anyway).
So my first question is...what would you do? And then, what would you get?

My criteria is I want to get to a 7.1 surround system that will kick my butt for under 2K.

Thanks all in advance!

This could be difficult to do for under $2000. Do you just need the M-80's or do you need to buy all the other speakers and a receiver to get 7.1?

M80's, even from the outlet are $990 US. As far as receivers that will work with 4 ohm speakers I own a
HK AVR-7200 that will power the M 80's and I've seen in other posts that the yamaha rxv-2400 can handle 4 ohms as well. The harmon kardon is very reasonably priced at the moment ($750-$800 or so) as they will be releasing their new top of the line AVR-7300 soon. Too many questions not enough info right now.

Let me weigh in with the Denon AVR-3803. Excellent unit. Handles 4 ohms, has 7.1 and can act as a pre/pro if you want to add amps later.

The new 3805 replacement will be shipping in the next couple of weeks. This means that the 3803 may be available at a discount. I'd expect you could get one now for $750-$900 if you negotiate locally.

MT,if the amp is now the first priority, you should consider something wihin your budget that would power M80s well and wouldn't require any future consideration of sepArates. A feature that deserves strong consideration is automatic room and speaker equalization, which while not a cure-all, is a significant advance. A very powerful receiver which has this and should meet your needs for many years is the Yamaha 2400.

Okay...just to clarify. The 2K would be toward receiver (pro/amp) only. I'm already figuring, regardless, I'll be picking up the M80s. Also to clarify about my setup (sorry for not posting enough info the first time). I currently have the VP150 for a center. I have Bose 701 for fronts (which I'm really ready to replace) and I have a pair of Eosone surrounds (somewhat similar to the QS series only it has 3 speakers instead of 4). The idea is, in the long run, to replace all speakers and have a purebread Axiom set. Thanks again everyone!

The Pioneer Elite series with MCACC (like Yamaha's YPAO) are also highly respected. But for $2k, you can get some nice separates. Replacing the Bose with the M80's (or even M60's) is going to make the biggest difference, though.

Outlaw 950B pre/pro and model 755 5 x 200 amp $1898 (from B-stock).

Mark