To All Realistic Question

[zodiak]

Thanks as always for the replys and info,

I came to this forum because I wanted to build a HT and wanted to make a simi intelligent purchasing decesion.

What I thought I wanted in the beginning has changed but what direction to go has not become any clearer, so I would like to ask a direct "realistic" question I am counting on the wealth of knowledge that exisits here for some direction.

With all the many setup's, different receivers,speakers, pre-outs,no pre-outs, external amps, no external amps.....and so on, my question is I dont really ever see someone saying jeez my set up stinks stay away from this equipment.

For a person such as myself getting into this from sub zero---no knowledge at all or maybe more importantly no real experience with the different speakers and avr's and such, a question is how much does the price of a product make performance wise?, I understand a $1000 speaker is going to sound better than a $99 speaker, but how much difference?

For someone who is getting into this stuff I understand the advice to purchase a rec. with preouts so you can up grade, but how important is that really, most of you I have read have "upgrade Itis" so you seem to be in constant search of perfection so am I to believe that your unhappy with your equipment? or just longing for the next best thing(with no disrespect intended) from a beginner all Im in search of is the HT experience.

What gives that experience is what I dont know, will a $300 receiver & $100 speakers give someone that experience(again understanding that $1000 equipment is going to enhance that experience) one thought that creates uncertainty in my mind is the actual difference, to some degree we can become sales people for our favorite product/brand, so where is the difference?

I understand alot of this is personal likes/dislikes, but in terms of performance giving someone a quality HT experience how far does one need to go to get that.

I respect everyone here please for give the long post.