Was sorta in your boots once Roger. My priorities has always been audio, so I put together a 2.1 system. The best part were the main speakers, Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's. Full bodied sound, good tone/detail, image like champs, work great for HT and especially audio, money went into guts not cabinet finish. 13 years later the SE version are available for $300/pair.
Recommend buying whatever Oppo universal player fits your budget.
If HT is a lower priority for you just pickup a A/V receiver (Marantz sells a smaller one). If size is important and you don't mind swapping it out once you settle into separate/nicer systems consider a NAD D3020 integrated amp. Parts Express has even cheaper/smaller integrated amps but build quality is questionable.
