I know someone here talked down on Crutchfield, but I was just looking at a catalog and they have some nice systems by Denon and Onkyo that you might want to look at to get some ideas. They fit into your price range, too.
I am also impressed by HarmonKardon recievers. This story is no sheeit...
One of my best friends in college had an HK reciever. Some guy actually pissed on the thing one night during a party (how he was not electrocuted, I will never know...) It worked like crap for one week, and then it fixed itself. I don't know how, it just did. It worked like new. For me, that was a strange but convincing demonstration for HK's reliability.
