I'm new to the forum and to home theater planning and really need advice for speakers and AV receiver (have neither yet). My apologies in advance for asking so many questions!
Our room is 12 ft deep and 18 ft wide, with fireplace/bookshelves on the left and open space to kitchen on the right. TV will be on interior wall of the 12 ft depth and sofa on the outside wall - no room behind sofa for surrounds. Speakers must be either invisible (in-wall) or nearly so.
Primary purpose of the system is for watching video with great sound. For music, I have an old NAD 3300 amp driving A/D/S bookshelfs in one room and a pair of Vanderstein's in the living room so I plan to just keep that system for music unless I find a compelling AV that can handle both music and AV really well.
Speakers:
Placement - I'm leaning toward putting L/R surrounds in the wall and am wondering if I can put front L/R in wall as well - does one sacrifice too much sound quality by putting fronts in wall as opposed to using bookshelf speakers on stands?
Brand of speakers - I've listened to Paradigms and really like them - any others I should audition?
AV Receiver
I'm really struggling here, with all the choices. What is the optimum size receiver for the above room? I've read good things about Pioneer Elite and almost bought the VSX-53TX yesterday but am wondering if that's too much machine for the space I will be using. Are there great receivers in the $400-500 price range that have features like auto or assisted speaker calibration, very low distortion, etc?
My planned approach to this situation is: 1) figure out speaker placement then speakers, 2) then select receiver. Am I doing this backwards?
Budget - I'd like to get the whole thing set up for $1500 or less and can do speaker installation myself.