Well this interesting indeed. First I would consider the room, and seating. If your going to be up against the wall, there’s no point in going after 7.x.x and while I think 5.1.4 is a better experience than 7.1.2, being up against the wall also makes it hard to place rear tops/heights appropriately, but imo still better than x.x.2. If you can move the seating ahead and off the back wall, then you can get er a little better overhead sound and Atmos performance. Cramming a bunch of speakers around the seating area just for the sake of them will hurt performance more than help. I think your smart to think about the long run with the AVR and having it be what you need in the future, but that might mean as others have said, build up in stages. I think looking at klipsch can be smart as they’re easy to drive, and in a smaller room the power demand will be low. However the sub that comes with the kit you linked is a gutless turd(sorry). Imo, real subwoofers start at about 500 bucks. However, in a tight budget I like the Dayton sub1200 at 150 bucks you can get two(or even on for that matter), and will be better than the Polk OR klipsch. In fact Dayton makes some decent BS speakers too.(maybe
@shady can link them).
If 1k is a hard number, I would probably do a lot of shopping at parts express/Dayton audio. As a noob your expectations vs experience are both low, so you only have one way to go. Up! The barrier to entry CAN be low, and as you gain experience you learn what is worth investing in(subs) and what’s not(usually electronics, but having appropriate channel counts and features should drive that). Sorry so windy...
So, is 1k a hard number?
Dayton Audio SUB-1200 12" 120 Watt Powered SubwooferDayton Audio SUB-1200 12" 120 Watt Powered SubwooferAdd thrilling low-frequency effects to your home cinema experienceThe Dayton Audio SUB-1200 12" powered subwoofer system is the perfect addition to any home theater system. This powered sub...
www.parts-express.com
They have an open box for $118.