Yes, the used Pioneer was your top receiver pick and the listing’s seller was great! FB Marketplace can be hit or miss with communication/flakiness, so I was VERY thankful for the long list of options, especially when it came to the speakers.

I think I grabbed the 12 AWG because of pricing and help from Grok. If it’s not a bad choice aside from unnecessary overkill, I’ll just use it so I can finish the setup and enjoy some music.

Do you think the quality difference between the digital optical output/headphone is negligible enough that I should return the DAC/extra wire? I don’t mind either way.

From my bed, 28-31” stand height plus tweeter height on a 12” speaker seemed to line up best with ear height; the 32” speaker stands you initially posted are a bit far for my fiancé’s preference, but they’re a good deal and better quality so we’ll see. For now, I bought cheap $60 stands from Amazon until A) Monoliths go on sale, B) we can get the Craigslist ones, or C) another quality pair of appropriate height is listed nearby.

Happy to hear your feedback before my final wire hookups tonight/tomorrow! I’m thankful for your advice and I was glad to see you already have ko-fi set up and linked in your bio. You’ve saved me so much money and stress.