There is a lot of perspective which needs to be considered before you make any purchase.
Many people here, myself included, have receivers and/or speakers (individual) that cost as much, or more, than your entire budget.
If your goal is to upgrade over the next couple of years, then you will want to first figure out what your end game is and how much you are willing to waste right now on cheap equipment that you don't want to hang onto for years to come.
If I were to pick one item to NOT hang onto, it would not be 5 cheap speakers, but it would be the receiver. Hands down.
When I went form a home theater in a box kit (Kenwood) I first upgraded the speakers. The difference between their cheapie speakers and some Definitive BP-30 speakers was astounding. Same receiver, but the speakers blew me away.
A cheap $100 receiver with a pair of good floor standing speakers will give you far more bang for the buck in the long term. You won't just have 'noise' everywhere, you will have quality sound, regardless of the fact that the receiver isn't very good.
When I added a $2,800 receiver to my new speaker setup, the jump in quality at normal listening levels was minimal. !!! I was suprised by this as I expected another huge jump in quality.
It turns out that amplification, unless done very poorly, can often be pretty solid at any price point, so you just pay for features you may, or may not use. While speakers... Speakers are the part which makes the entire system come alive.
Not sure I convinced you if you have your heart set on a decent entry level receiver, but I would encourage you to consider that a decent pair of bookshelf speakers may be a better way to go.
There is also this thread here which I think offers some decent options for around $500 total...
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/home-theater-gear/79806-build-your-own-htib-400-800-a.html
We need to put together a thread like that here!
