I offer to you the following excerpt from one of my first posts.
"I guess the whole point of this post is to invite comment on either ERA or EPOS, because I don't really know a lot about them except that I like the sound. I will try to find and read reviews, etc., but all of a sudden she's in a real hurry because now she's heard real music instead of Bose music.
In fact, I might just have the go ahead for the whole system (Matching center, Denon 2307, Sunfire 5 channel amp and Rocket Bi-pole surrounds)"
So how did I do vs. the plan. (note I had already ordered the PB12-Plus by the time of this post.)
1. Era D5 and matching center. check.
2. Denon AVR-2307. check.
3 Sunfire Amp. Not - went with Rotel 5ch amp, so check anyway.
4 Rocket bipoles. Not - went with Monitor Audio Bronze BFX, so check anyway again.
Deviations from plan as follows,
1. Samsung DVD player crapped out. Replaced with Cambridge DVD/SACD palyer. Nice upgrade.
2. Got HSU Ventriloquist/STF-3 for bedroom system - STF-3 was moved to main system as second sub. Awesome upgrade.
3. Added Panamax 5300-EX power conditioner for safety.
4. Added Escient Fireball. My wife wanted this. It's not for me, per se. As noted above, she is taking an active interest in the system and she wants to get the system done quickly, so we moved the Fireball up from the long term want-list for her listening pleasure.
I think I've stuck reasonably close to the original plan, at least in concept. The variations from the plan have been significant improvements. Once the final pieces are installed, I don't see a cheap or simple upgrade path. For instance, I can't see myself trading my Era's for the Focal/JM Labs Electras any time in the foreseeable future, even though they are the only speakers I've heard that I would consider in such an upgrade. I also think the Rotel will last nearly a lifetime and the Denon as a pre/pro-switcher has a long shelf life. I don't have a 1080p TV and have no plans to get one, so there's no incentive to get Bluray or HD-DVD. Also, I'm not a gamer so there's no X-box or PS3 to deal with. I've found that running my Athenas and the Ventriloquist together as speakers A and B on my AVR-686 sounds pretty good together in the bedroom with my little Sony sub, so no need to upgrade that either.
Long story made short, I think I'm done.