as far as receivers go, i can do nothing but praise the yamaha series. absolutely NO faults whatsoever. i'm on my second receiver, my first one was a dsp-a2070, a very old flagship model that the only flaw with, is that it needs to have its input selector and balance control fixed as over time they have failed. over time? yeah. the unit is about a decade old, and the switch on it is a physical switch which has after much use, come to end. i was given it by my friend who is a home cinema lover, he bought his new one after failing to find somewhere to fix the old a2070. passing it onto me i managed to get the thing working again for a while but after buying a 360 and getting many more devices with optical sound, i decided to buy a new one. so i shopped around for a while but never found anything up to yamaha standards. my amplifier runs 11.1 in speakers, with sound that is so crisp and pure i really cannot fault it in any way. it's got all the inputs i need, doesn't have HDMI sadly but i bought it before that came in below their top of the range unis.

i know yamaha make upscaling/converting receivers, and i do say, check out their range. not only are they impeccable in terms of performance, but setting them up is so easy. using the optimiser microphone unit, you just place it where you sit, around where your head is best, say on top of your chair (it has a very very long lead) and press go. leave the room, and it'll test your speakers size, layout, and power ratings, and set itself up for the best sound output from each speaker. brilliant.

as for display units, i've heard good of the aquos, but i must say i'm very very impressed by LG, and of course, theres loewe. which i'm sure need no introduction. Beovision as well, but they tend to just look pretty and have fancy functions rather than just pure performance. trueblack is something to look for, black is something alof of these have a problem with, and it's very important to look at black on your screen to see how it copes.

i'm sure you know, but i will say it for everyone else. cables are just as much a consideration as anything else. twin and earth =D the best. friend showed me a great website where they did extensive tests on all the best wires, from standard hi-fi cable, to the most expensive high grade ultimate audio cable on the market. and twin and earth cable, came out just as good as stuff thats up there at the top of the market.

though, i do use oxy free and loudspeaker cable. soon when my new cinema room is built i'll consider my options but for now i'm using about £4 per metre loudspeaker cable. for device interconnect, THX do cables, but they're rediculously priced. QED i have heard nothing but great reviews about, but obviously, expect to pay high for decent interconnect cables.

anywho, i should stop going on.