Thanks Lovin. For now the receiver is mainly for 2ch music atleast for couple of years, if I can reuse after for a living room audio/video setup it will be good.
foobar2000 looks good. thanks for mentioning, I am thinking of NAS kind for storage space(will start a separate thread later once i get my setup).
In spite of the current trends with surround sound, a really complete and robust music system can be built around 2 channel, or 2.1-2, better yet. Especially in smaller rooms.
I have friends with 5 and up channel surround and I never really warmed up to it musically. When I started on my current system a few months ago, a friend of mine gave me his old multi channel AVR and figured I would follow suit with something similar to his system, his being based around bookshelf sized speakers on stands. All I had then for speakers was two rather large JBL 3 ways. He thought that was hilarious until he heard them. Even less so when he found out I only paid $75 bucks for them from crgslist. His, and another friend of mine's system is why I gravitated back towards two channel even more and more towards larger main speakers, in spite of my small listening area.
Now I've got killer sounds and money to spare. All in, I am at just a little over $1300. Granted, I built my own main speakers and subwoofer, the AVR being a gift saved me about $1-200 since that is what they sell for used(they were over $1k when new) on ebay.
With your budget, you should be able to put together a really nice 2 channel system that should keep you pleased for as long as it lasts. I wouldn't even fret over it being ideally expandable. I'd be more inclined to build the best 2 channel experience I could for now too. For me personally, it was possibly one of the best audio choices I have ever made.
ETA: I should add that the folks here on this forum helped a LOT with what I have accomplished.
