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vic wrote:

I listen to music and watch movies at moderate volume levels. Based on
these facts, would I be better off with the Beta 40s or maybe the Beta
20 bookshelves?

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER sacrifice speaker capacity for amplifier capacity.
The single greatest impact made on your system is the quality of the
speakers you choose. Power is cheap relative to good speakers. If you
must spend on your system, build it around the speakers, not _ANY_
other component. Start there, end there. The rest is really infill
towards excellent speakers and supporting their best performance.

With that mini-rant in mind, and if you are locked into that particular
receiver, get the _best_ possible speakers you can afford and listen to
them at moderate levels for now. You do have a large room if you
include the entire contiguous volume and so you do not want to have an
anemic system if there is a valid alternative.

As time passes, and if you do run into clipping problems with your
anticipated set-up, you can move up to more power a bunch less
expensively than you can move up to better speakers. Keep in mind that
based on 65wpc, "more power" really means you are starting at 200wpc as
the next level up, not 75 or 100wpc.

All the usual cautions apply: Audition a bunch of speakers. Obtain, if
possible, the right-to-return if what you hear in *your* home does not
match your expectations or what you heard in the shop. Try to audit
those speakers with sources you know... that is, bring your own CDs or
other material with which you are very familiar. DO NOT bring an iPod
or similar, bring a primary source. Try to match the audition
conditions as closely to your home conditions as is practical.
Understand that speakers are strange beasts, as your ears are strange
appendages. What sounds great in one location may wear on you in
another. It is very damned near impossible to formulate a valid opinion
on any given set of speakers in less than perhaps-20 hours of listening
over several days, at least. Only then will you be sure that what you
have will not irritate you over time. Does a combination of speakers
make you restless? Do you all-of-a-sudden want to get up and do
something? are you preternaturally alert, or uncomfortable (in a
negative sense)? Are you less concerned with the music than with
whatever else is happening? That could well be the speakers causing
that reaction. So take your time over (what should be) the single
largest expense in your system.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA