<font color='#000000'>A considerable and credible body of opinion (among electronics engineers and others) holds that the vast majority of purely electronic audio devices these days (amps, recievers, CD players etc., but NOT speakers, which are electromechanic/electroacoustic devices) have reached "commodity levels" in performance, regardless of price. That is to say that nearly all of them have distortion levels well below audibility, a flat frequency response without audible peaks or dips, and negligible noise. So your choice becomes a matter of price, reliability, features, and intangibles like how you like their looks and the feel/convenience of their controls.
Bottom line: Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer, Yamaha, whatever...pay your money and take your choice. Pick up a Consumer Reports and see what they have to say - they test more mass-market gear than any of the audio mags and while one may quibble about their methodology it's still better than the onanistic drivel in the likes of Stereophile.
Spend the bulk of your money and mental energy in choosing the best speakers you can afford. They are the one component where real variability still exists and there are both very good and truly awful ones to be had at entry level prices. Again, staff reviews and articles on this site are one good info source as is Consumer Reports. Verify their recommendations with your ears since your taste and expectations count. You have to live with them, after all.
Interconnects and cables: avoid thin wire and cheapo molded plastic plugs (like the ones often thrown in free with your receiver or CD player), but don't fall for the hype that expensive cables will work any sort of magic. Not that the "gimme" cables will necessarily degrade the sound but they might be a bit more vulnerable to noise from RF interference and they tend to break if you unplug/replug a lot. Get reasonably beefy shielded ones from Radio Shack with quality plugs and strain reliefs where the plug and wire meet. Gold plating is pretty and corrosion resistant (some call it "audio jewelry"
but otherwise does not have magical signal transmittal properties - at least not that you can hear. Also, check out the wide range of interconnects at partsexpress.com. You can get good quality short ones (12" to 20"
from various mfrs. there in addition to the usual 3 foot and 6 foot ones. I think the shorties are for car audio, but that doesn't matter. I like the short ones when components are stacked atop or right next to each other just to minimize the "spaghetti jungle" behind your gear.
Speaker wire: 16ga or heavier zip cord from Home Depot etc. Keep the speaker wire as short as possible and avoid coiling excess lengths of wire: it creates a slight but possibly deleterious inductance.
And if you want insight into what makes it all work, read the tech articles here. And maybe even buy or borrow a book on basic electronics written for the hobbyist rather than the EE student. Even if you're a non-techie and math makes you break out in a cold sweat (like me - I was a theater major) the basics are actually pretty easy to grasp and the knowledge gained thereby will help arm you against the misinformation, hype and fraud so rampant in audio. Warning: it may cause you to buy a soldering iron and try to build your own!
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