First apartment, first setup, 1150$, starting slow.

This is going to sound like another one of those sub-(put-your-budget-here) posts and truth be told, it is. I have been reading up on the sticky threads and the beginners guides to try and make sense of what sort of a setup I'd like for my new apartment where I am starting completely from scratch but am in over my head with most of the terms and jargon used so there's a lot of tab-switching going on.

In order to make things easier, I decided to do a rough sketch of my living room which is 19'4" square to help understand the acoustics better(the entertainment center is against the bedroom wall on the top and the kitchen is in the bottom-left corner) -


Since there are a lot of sundry expenses involved with moving into my first apartment(the first morning I discovered to my horror that I'd have to buy shower curtains!) I'd like to start slow with a basic 2.1 initial setup for mostly music purposes with a bit of movies and gaming thrown in every now and then(an 80-10-10 split). My initial budget is a 1000$ with a 150$ gift certificate from Newegg which will likely be used for this project. My last roommate got me addicted to the warm sounds of vinyl and I want to throw in a record player into the mix too.

From the looks of it, I think my initial wants are - a receiver, a 2/2.1 setup, and a record player with a starting budget of 1000+150. The TV and gaming console can come later on.

Thoughts\Comments\Suggestions?

I like that turntable! The only ones I have considered so far are Audio-Technica(s) so this comes as a welcome option. I am not sold on the bookshelf speakers, though. I'd much rather prefer floor speakers in the front and then maybe add bookshelf speakers to the rear in the future.This also helps prevents vibrations on the table where the record player is going to be sitting.

Also, 1150$ is not an absolute. I wouldn't mind forking out an extra 100 or more for equipment that's worth it.

Thanks for the suggestions on the HB-1 MK2's. All reviews(or at least the ones I found on avsforum and Google) seem to indicate that this is an awesome pair. Also sold on the Pro-Ject turntable since that's the only one *everyone* seems to be recommending.

I still need to pick a receiver and maybe a sub. Does it make sense to save up some more and get a better sub in the future? I might extend this to a 3.1 setup sometime later this year but I have no plans for a 5.1 or beyond for this current apartment.

I presume you mean this - http://cdn.avsforum.com/8/81/81062e22_IMG_2322.jpeg ?

The apartment building is an old one(think creaky wooden floors with sound travelling easily between units) so I am re-thinking the sub idea.

I have a pair of Grado SR-60i(s) which are my go to headphones for the moment with no plans to upgrade anytime soon.

Thanks for the suggestion on the HKs. The lack of HDMI connectors means that this probably wouldn't scale well when adding a TV and XBOX to the mix, right?

So, any suggestions on AVRs? The current setup I am thinking of includes a pair of HB1-MK2s and the Pro-Ject Debut III record player. I am ditching the idea of a sub because that will probably not be received well in my current building

I don't have an iPod so all the "ipod stuff" is most likely unimportant to me. The final setup will probably have a gaming console or two/a TV and a TT with whatever audio I throw at it. I'd say I have a budget of 350-400$ left over for the receiver(can be higher if it's something from Newegg since I have a gift certificate there).

My priority here is to buy something that will scale with the rest of the setup. The HK's suggested above looked like a good option but they'd be useless with the HDMI equipment which is next on the list.