Here might be a place to start, April issue of WHF is on sale now and would be worth reading. On the same page as the link you will find budget, medium and hi end system examples for hifi, home cinema and also the 2008 awards.
Reading through the forum is also worth doing to get a feel for what people a buying recommending, once you have an idea on what you are interested in you can post to get feed back, if you post it's worth stating music/film tastes etc