If it helps, I went down the route of a Sony all-in-one amp/speaker
package a few years ago (good for films & a living room friendly
system that blends in rather than standing out under your telly). Its
still great (upto a point), but you cant easily upgrade parts of the
system, which means when you want to change anything, you will have to
change the lot! With my HTK215 system (yes I know its old), but now I
want to develop my system I find limitations with amp setup (if I want
to change speaker size) and Sony's decision to use non standard plugs
on back of amp also make this difficult. I am now looking to go down
the AV receiver route for this reason (despite the fact they are all
big ugly bricks - relatively speaking).
<>The new Sony DAV-IS10
system is excellent for film and will upscale to 720p/1080i. The
satellite speakers are amazing (very solid despite their size) and Sony
(for once) have provided relatively decent (better than bell wire)
cable for such a package. However the amp sill uses odd speaker sockets
(telephone socket type). From an audio perspective, the trick of
putting the mid frequencies through a speaker on top of the sub works
well when watching films (your ears are not drawn to the sub, it does
appear to come from the centre of the TV!) I suspect however that the
sub needs to be close to the telly to maintain this deceit (and its not
exactly small or pretty). I also found the satellites a little bright
at times and they would be useless for music (they are in effect
tweeters only). They are also so small, that they would look silly on
speaker stands. For the fronts, this is not an issue - their size is a
bonus in this respect. However it does mean you are going to have to
wall mount the rear speakers if you dont have a shelf or something
behind your sofa to put them on (something I cant do with my living
room).
<>As a first foray into home cinema the DAV-IS10 would
be a great / safe choice, but be aware of the limitations of any such
all-in-one micro home cinema kit.