Choose: THX 7.1 w/o HDMI or 7.1 w/ HDMI

[Collectors Set]

We are talking in the $600-$800 range here for a complete system [receiver and speakers] & just BluRay movie watching. I realize most of you probably spent twice this or more for just your receiver

One other caveat to consider is that I think most or all complete systems in this price range do NOT pass the audio through via HDMI and hence you must purchase completely different cable(s) to achieve the audio connectivity.

So with that said, if you had to choose one in the same price range

would you go with one of these 7.1 systems with HDMI inputs/outputs
or
would you go with a multichannel 7.1 THX system that does not have any HDMI outputs/inputs???

Thanks in advance.