Home Theater Audio Recommendation?

Greetings all.. let me preface this by saying I know nothing about audio technologies. That being said, I just got an HDTV (Mitsubishi 46805), and have a Toshiba 3109 DVD player. Now I need a sound system. Luckily for me, I get things at cost at a local chain of stores, and have about $700 for a system (so at retail, that would be about $1100-$1200 or so).


I was looking at (I believe) the Sony STR-DE935 that they had displayed at the store, but really don't know if its any good or not (I was basically thinking, the more expensive the better)..


So, question is, What do I need (Reciever & Speakers only?), and what can I get that has a MSP of around $1300, retail around $1100?


Thanks for any info you can help me out with.


-Frank