Greetings!  Long time reader/lurker, first time poster.  I am finally ready to commit some time and money to the hifi audio world and I am trying to get the best value for my dollar.  I primarily find myself listening to music throughout the week with the occasional movie watched during that time.  On the weekends its probably a 50/50 split as to what I do with my audio-listening and video-watching leisure time.  With that being said, I am trying to decide on the best approach for addressing both my desire for higher-end audio experiences as well as my desire to have a servicable surround sound setup for tv/movie viewing. 

Now, my heart tells me to address the 2-channel desire first and worry about the surround sound rig second based on sound quality and the fact I do more music listening than movie watching.  However, I would like as few components as possible and wouldn't be opposed to listening to my music through a a/v reciever in "stereo" mode if I could find an a/v reciever that would perform this task on par with some of the entry-level integrated amps.  Ultimately what I am getting at is can I run one reciever/amp to cover both of those needs?  Short of going integrated amp + cd player + turntable + 2 speakers for the stereo and a/v receiver + 5.1 speakers + TV for the other, is there a better way of skinning this proverbial cat??  If someone out there has a no-brainer solution I am happy to hear it, but I suspect the answer I will get is "you CAN do all of this through an a/v reciever, but you are going to lose sound quality to a degree that you may not like". 

As far as budgets go I was willing to commit to around $1500 for the 2-channel rig and probably around $500 for HTIB for the surround sound needs if I had to get seperates.  If I can lump a lot of this together, that may change those numbers for each.