Originally Posted by ncx

Just my .02 cents... speakers matter more than anything in your HT audio setup, and you will not get bang for the buck with Pioneer speakers. If that is what you choose I am sure you can find something that will sound good. In my opinion, run quickly away from Bose. There are far better options for the money (I won't go on about Bose here).

The 1017 rec'r will be fine, although it does not put near the power you think it does. It's max AC power consumption is 450w so you can get an idea of what it can output with all channels driven. It will have no problem driving efficient speakers to reference levels. Is the 1017 the one that only has HDMI pass through? - no processing and no upconversion from other inputs. That may not matter to you.

If you want to list your budget for speakers and size/type requirements, I am sure you will get some good recommendations. Also run a search, we have had a few of these discussions recently.