Fwit
I gotta go along with wmax. A 12 x 14 room is pretty small, and if I recall, you said you had about 3K to drop.... I'd look at spending about 2K of that on speakers, and for that amount of money, you oughtta be able to find a gorgeous pair of speakers.
I have no idea what anything costs, but I'd look at B&Ws. Granted, the pair I have (DM603 s3s) are no longer in production, but they're a gorgeous sounding speaker (imaging is awesome, very crisp and open highs, tight, punchy bass, blah, blah, blah... but they are yummy to listen to), and I got the pair for $700 (which was a 30% discount cuz I had the good fortune to walk into the store the same day as the new 684s were arriving).
I love 'em, and I'm sure with your budget, B&W has a nice pair of speakers.
As far as a source goes, I really like my cheapo Oppo 980H. The thing only cost $170, and it gets rave reviews all over the place. I love the thing. Especially since I have a mess of SACD and DVD-A.
As far as your amp or receiver choices go, you got me. I think they probably have the least amount of impact on sound of all the links in the chain except maybe speaker cables and interconnects, so just make sure you get the features and power you want.