I am just starting my audio education. There is such huge range of equipment available that I would like to maybe learn a few rules of thumb (if they exist) befor I start demo-ing. I would prefer not to waste my sellers time or my own. I have been researching equipment for a two channel system with a total budget between$5-6,000. It will play in a fairly large room with hard surface floors that is an "L" shape, 9' ceilings with about 14'x25'. Asthetics are somewhat important(married) as is the lack of speaker placement options.

I've read several reviews of these amps and integrated amps and was just wondeering if anyone has actually heard them. Their 2 top models, V8 & V6, are "hyper Class A" (whatever that is have outputs of 250 watt and 150 watt, respectively.
Reportedly they run so cool, for being Class A, that you can put your hand on the heatsinks and leave them there. The speaker terminals look like terminals on a 1950's Tektronix oscilloscope, I once owned. Check these amps out at www.dussun.com. Is anyone familiar with these items from China?

I am new to the home theater game and wanted to get some suggestions before I spend the money for a system. This setup will be in my living room that is 22'L x 19'W with HUGE vaulted ceilings. Therefore, I'm concerned that 5 speaker surround would get lost in the space and not be worth the money. So I'm considering either a nice set of floorstanding speakers with built in subs or bookshelves with a seperate sub. Any suggestions on which of the three would be best for this type of room? The system would be used 95% for TV and movies and 5% for music.