hope for the best, but know it won't happen...

I always thought I'd get a hi-fi music set-up - receiver, probably the Denon AVR-391, although it'd be nice if I had a large enough living space to include the Onkyo TX-8255, since I do mainly listen to my music in stereo.  The AVR-391 would be a comparable space saving solution since it can play hi-fi audio in stereo AND surround sound...I probably wouldn't use surround sound very often, but how can I know?  Aside from the local movie theater (which I have a bone to pick with for cranking the base so high on INCEPTION that I couldn't even hear the dialogue in some parts), I have no experience(s) with surround sound.  But just the concept - movies, which I hardly ever watch, and music DVDs, which are about as hard to come by as SACDs are, unless you're into the more mainstream stuff.  And speaking of SACDs being hard to come by, I don't think there's a single album that is available on SACD that I want to AND will buy.  Toto IV (1982) by Toto is a great album, but it's almost $100 to buy, which is absurd, IMO, and a few others have also come and gone and left outrageous price tags behind - Boston (1976) by Boston, Peter Gabriel's UP (2002)...

I just don't have much to work with financially as it is.
I still can't find any speakers that would go good with the TX8255 NOR the AVR391, although for the AVR391 the Yamaha HTIB speakers would probably be good enough for who knows how long...actually, I can't even find speakers with a low enough wattage to feel safe running the TX8255 at high(ish) volume(s).
 

So I thought the CS 325 by Onkyo would be a good solution, yeah it's a shelf system, but it's an extraordinarily good one, not those crumby $50-$100 ones you find at WalMart.  I had the EC55 by SONY (discontinued by about a year at least now...) & the base on it was just too friggin' high, with or without bass boost.  BASE IS A BACKGROUND INSTRUMENT!!!!  If Korn is all you listen to, tell SONY to make a Korn player.  Or just use the base boost function, will ya?  Anyway, I simply will have to wait at least another year for the CS 325 and I don't think I'm picky enough about sound as it is for me to shell out the extra money for a seperate receiver & speakers.  So I Just recently ordered the far more elegant and sophisticated looking CMTBX20i, made by SONY, which - if looks are at all indicative of the inside - should be a bit more mature when it comes to base/balance/etc.  It probably won't rock my world, and it's probably not worth saving up all my $ for, but I'm tired of feeling like I'm wasting my compact digital audio discs on TV speakers.  And I don't want to have to buy all my music on mp3 and not be able to tell my CDs apart w/o reading a bunch of generic looking labels that I have to take the time to make myself...
  So that leaves my 1940CI that I ordered about two years ago virtually useless.  But I can probably get enough back on it to buy a new (smaller) DVD player AND have $20++ left to myself for whatever (CDs?).  I just hope someone wants it bad enough to take it off my hands in the next week or so so I can ship it and use the funds from my old player to GET a new DVD player (see link above, also a SONY) and use that to watch GHOSTBUSTERS I & II and whatever I rent from the video store...I boxed up the 1940CI, to make sure I could fit it in there securely (fits like a glove!) and now it's sitting on my table behind my TV.  PLEASE TAKE IT!  Luckily I have GHOSTBUSTERS on VHS AND A VCR!!  I've been using my computer for music listening lately anyway, so that's of no consequence...
  I'm sorta counting on my sister to give me some/enough money to pay the majority of the $26 of the CMTBX20i's $128.04 price tag (it was actually $114, but I ordered a Squaretrade 3 year extended warranty with it) that I'm missing, although I actually have another $9.76, but it's on an AMEX gift card, which I can't just deposit in the bank, you see...my mom said this morning that she won't let me buy her a Walmart gift card and give me $9 cash in exchange for it, but she was half asleep when she said that and she got all angry when I acted surprised by her answer, so I'm HOPING all I'm missing is $17, 'cause even if my sister gives me a meager $15, I can get the other $2 from Hastings by selling some stuff....