1. Listen Listen Listen : No two sets of ears are the same. Also, what sounds good at the dealer for a 5 minute test may make your ears ring after watching a whole movie or listening to a whole symphony. You can hear the difference after a while. . . and it's not subtle.

2. There are a lot of manufacturers out there, not just the ones at the chain stores. Shop around.

3. As hinted, there's a stereo for every budget. It's a good idea to set your budget, THEN go shopping. The sky is the limit.

4. Read Read Read. I like The Perfect Vision (but it's still not perfect) for home theatre, and The Abso!ute Sound for music (once again, still not absolute). Stereophile and Stereophile Guide To Home Theater are good too.

5. Talk to everybody. Listen to as many systems as you can. Even the high end ones will steer you to what sacrifices are being made in the lower end systems. (read: how diminshed is the law of diminishing returns)

Some stuff I like (this list is far from complete):

Speakers:
VonSchweikert (The VR-1s are a great value)
My drummer bought this system - Hsu Research
Epos - not great, but good-for-the-money

Receivers/Amps:
Jolida - good stuff for music, but not necessarily for HT
Vincent Audio
Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Sony ES, and NAD are all pretty dandy too.

Disk Players:
You'll have enough of those between the XBox and PS3.
Do remember to attach the digital audio out to your receiver (duh).
My advice; wait until there's a good universal disc player you like.

Cables:
There's tons. I like most of what http://www.audioadvisor.com/ carries.

Remember, this is supposed to be fun!