the best of your equipment. I would sell off the rest of the stuff for what you can get and start saving for upgrades. I also wouldn't bother with multichannel, just concentrate on building the best two-channel system you can. For now I would work with the Yamaha SOUND MENU, A)SPEAKER SET, FRONT to set the JBL HLS610s (connected as FRONT) to SMALL, set CENTER, SUR. LR and SUR. B to NONE, BASS OUT to SWFR, and CrossOver to 60Hz.

Position your JBLs as close as possible to the Cardas recommendation for rectangular rooms. http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup You could scavenge lumber to build speaker stands which can be filled with sand. A simple tall box with platforms for the base and where the speaker will sit. You could scavenge materials to make a FlexyTable http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/flexye.html to hold your components. You could look at some of the DIY boards for makeshift bass traps for the four corners and ideas for absorption at the first reflection points and front and back walls.

Finally, graduate college as soon as you can, get gainfully employed, set a budget, and start auditioning equipment at your price point. Ask questions again when you get to this point.

Good Luck!

XLR8R22 wrote:

... I'm looking only for advice that will not cost me a dime. I have access to lots of tools and equipment, and am somewhat of a handyman, so I'm ok with making things from scratch, so long as they aren't too complicated. ...

... is very much a component as influential as anything else. Start researching room treatments and build yourself some. Sorry, don't have any links at the moment. This will be a relatively low cost exercise you can do that will utilize your handyman skills at your own pace and experimentation.

Later, you can go back to worrying about electronic gear---and you'll get more out of it once the room is tamed a bit. And yeah, purge the unused lesser stuff.