Well, how big is the project? How many zones of light? How many rooms of music? What do you want to distribute? Have you owned a/v equipment in the past that you liked? What was it? These are typically the questions where a converstaion starts in the process of determining scope of work and cost. To tell you the truth, $40k sounds modest w/o having the answers to these questions, (Our average music system is $35K, but its not the average home in my part of the business). I guess the final question is, does the end result seem appropriate. If you take alook at your home, and the quality of the materials and workmanship throughout the rest of it, did you choose the finest linens, and a spatial designer, or did you and your wife decide on a color scheme together and your best friend is pouring the slab in the basement. (Typically its somewhere in between.) BTW, this isn't a value judgement here, one hopes the end result is the same, you build the home you'd like to have. Its the comfort level we are looking for. Functionally, every system works very much the same. The end result varies by degree, and what we would like to do is guage your level of expectation, and then exceed it, without having you test drive each.
Sorry, the keyboard got away from me for a minute...
jcmitch