1st Receiver

Get a Harman Kardon 3390 or 3490. These are sold as 'refurbished'. I bought a 3390 that had the plastic still on the front and it came with everything - including a 2 year same as new warranty. Expect to pay under $200 for the 3390 - and $250 or so for the 3490.

Are you asking which receivers deliver rated power into 2 channels? Most should.

The HKs are probably good. Your budget is pretty low, or I would suggest any receiver with pre outs and the addition of an affordable amp.

Look into the infinity primus 362's at fry's.
They are right at your price point.
Excellent speaker for the buck.

Not sure what part of Az you are in but a quick perusal of craigs list in Phoenix area brought up these. You might negotiate the price down some. Depends on the condition. Or these. And Vandersteens are always good - price is a bit high but those are nice speakers. Don't pay asking price.

There are lots of good used deals around - you just need to know what to look for - and what to avoid.

If you find something interesting post back and ask about it.

Update: Here's a great deal - the Beta 50s alone are nearly worth that! Buy the lot and sell off what you don't want/need. Of course you should always talk the price down. The Beta 50s are the 'poor man's Revels'. Revel of course being the top of the line speakers for Harman International. But Revel uses the same drivers as the Infinity Betas. The tweeter in the Beta line are about as good as I've ever heard - I've owned Infinity speakers for nearly 10 years now because of these tweeters. I have Infinity Cascades now. It uses the same CMMD as the Revels - Betas - Interludes - Preludes etc. A very long line of great sound!
The Primus line does not use the CMMD drivers unfortunately.

Well crap! I must be getting dyslexic in my old age. I thought I saw an Az - it's an Ar!

Those Beta 50s are a great deal - too bad you're so far away.

Usually the foam surrounds go bad on old speakers. Not much else can go wrong unless they've been overdriven. Cerwin Vegas are known for being played loud and clear with no real problems.

Go take a listen - if the cosmetics are ok usually they've been taken care of but I have seen used speakers with wax from candles dripping down - banged up from moving from one house to another but still play good. In the end it's all about the sound - not the looks. You can check for proper voice coil alignment by gently pushing in on the woofer near the center of the cone with your fingers - make like you are holding a ball and push in with the back of your fingertips. If you hear a rubbing sound the alignment was bad and the speaker will make some funny noises. A 9v battery can be touched to the terminals to see if the coil is in good condition. It should make a popping noise and extend or pull in depending on the polarity you present with the battery connected.

I have a pair of Infinity IL40s that I doubt I'd get more than $250 for. Sound quality is excellent and I won't be selling them. My son wants them - I keep telling him 'as soon as I'm gone'. He has a long wait if I have my way.

Check these out. The IL40s are what I have - sans the center channel which can be sold on ebay for up to $200 if its in good shape. The IL36C center channel is a very good speaker. If you bought these three you should think about keeping the center for a later home theater setup if you ever get interested.

Yamaha makes good stuff. Hard to go wrong with their AVRs.

FYI -- As far as I know, the HK 3390 and 3490 do not have an internal high-pass to filter out the bass for the main speakers when you add a subwoofer. In contrast, most receivers intended for home theater DO have a high-pass filter for the main speakers, which is helpful when adding a sub. More detail here: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums...39&postcount=7

-Max

Either get a nice set of tower speakers and no sub - or get a nice set of bookshelf speakers and add a sub. As Max pointed out there is no bass management on the HK - or any other stereo receiver that I'm aware of. You can even get a large pair of towers and add a sub if you want - it won't really be a big deal.

I have a pair of DV64 in my 5.1 HT System. They are excellent and for around $230 shipped for the pair they are an excellent best bang for the buck.

I always try to use a place with in home trials, usually a 30 day period. Kind of like a protection policy against buyers remorse.

Theoretically, you could buy a Behringer A500, hook an iPod (or other player) directly to it's inputs, and drive it pretty loud.

I don't recommend that.

An improved solution is a used receiver (say $100 to $200 max) with a record out or pre out.

Connect any MP3 player to the receiver, connect the receiver to the Behringer, and it's going to play loud no matter the speakers.

I've had my HK 3480 for about 5 years now. I bought that refurbished from HK. Never a problem of any kind. Very powerful clean amp for two channel listening. I use it almost every night for at least two hours so I think that's pretty darn impressive.