I'm definitely biased towards Denon for the receiver, as well as Marantz. I won't waste my time with anything else any more.
If you're willing to do some minor assembly as far as subs go, take a look at the Titanic sub kit from Dayton, available at
www.partsexpress.com I put one together for a friend, and it was amazingly tight and deep, rivaling subs in a much higher price range.
For satellites/bookshelfs, don't count out Mirage. I use Mirage speakers (floorstanders) all the way around, but I suggested the Denon/Mirage package to my sister, and it sounded pretty impressive for such a small package.
In any case, don't forget not to skimp on the cables and interconnects. Nothing can kill sound quality like a junk set of RCA cables.