I'd say, for now, figure out the speaker package you want and match it to your receiver. In general, you want to spend most of your money on speakers as their technology changes much slower than receivers. The figure I remember (and it is a soft number) is 3x so if you're looking to spend $1500 on a receiver and speakers that's $375 for receiver and $1125 for speakers (as a ballpark). Check out this thread, it'll help you with receiver choice.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=583931

In fact, from the same site, here's a thread on someone that wants to spend $1500 on receiver and speakers, it should help.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=595029