I'd go for something like the following:
Mitsubishi or Pioneer Elite HDTV-ready, 16x9 55" screen for around $3800 (new, discounted).
Denon AVR-4800, $1200 (on ebay or Audiogon, maybe B-stock)
A progressive scan DVD player ($600ish) probably Toshiba.
A combo DirecTV / Tivo unit with dish ($400 new)
Leave about $350 for cables - 12ga wire from Home Depot for speaker wire, decent Tara Labs or Monster cables for interconnects.
That leaves a little over $3500 for speakers. I'd look for used, and I'd choose speakers that could be driven effectively by a receiver. Since so much of that is dependent on personal taste, I won't pretend to tell you which one to buy, plus listening and deciding is 1/2 the fun. Some brands that would work well and you could buy a nice version of include: Paradigm, NHT, PSB, Definitive Tech.
In my opinion, putting together something like that would seriously WOW almost anyone who experienced it, including you and your family members.
That said, there are a few considerations that would quite possibly cause me to alter my recommendations, including:
How much time listening to music vs. watching movies (those are nice TV sets I'm spec'ing)
Is $10K your lifetime limit, or would you likely be willing to spend some more to improve it in a year?
If you were going to improve it, would you want to only add to it, or would you want to upgrade pieces?
Best of luck in your choice.
Mitsubishi or Pioneer Elite HDTV-ready, 16x9 55" screen for around $3800 (new, discounted).
Denon AVR-4800, $1200 (on ebay or Audiogon, maybe B-stock)
A progressive scan DVD player ($600ish) probably Toshiba.
A combo DirecTV / Tivo unit with dish ($400 new)
Leave about $350 for cables - 12ga wire from Home Depot for speaker wire, decent Tara Labs or Monster cables for interconnects.
That leaves a little over $3500 for speakers. I'd look for used, and I'd choose speakers that could be driven effectively by a receiver. Since so much of that is dependent on personal taste, I won't pretend to tell you which one to buy, plus listening and deciding is 1/2 the fun. Some brands that would work well and you could buy a nice version of include: Paradigm, NHT, PSB, Definitive Tech.
In my opinion, putting together something like that would seriously WOW almost anyone who experienced it, including you and your family members.
That said, there are a few considerations that would quite possibly cause me to alter my recommendations, including:
How much time listening to music vs. watching movies (those are nice TV sets I'm spec'ing)
Is $10K your lifetime limit, or would you likely be willing to spend some more to improve it in a year?
If you were going to improve it, would you want to only add to it, or would you want to upgrade pieces?
Best of luck in your choice.