Help with first hifi setup

Hello everybody... At the beginning I would like to say that  I am new in all hifi audiophile stuff. I mean ive always love and collected music, but now im geting my first hifi system. Well only beginers entry level stuf. Ill get Monitor Audio Bronze BX2 speakers and Denon PMA-520AE integrated amplifier. I will conect them whith silverChord cables. Is that any good?

Ok, to my problems. Ive got two of them.

1. Im buying "hifi table" and I dont know what to get. I mean, does it have to be firm, solif or soft? Im thinking on something from Ikea ... like http://www.ikea.com/at/de/catalog/products/00176297/#/60176299 orhttp://www.ikea.com/at/de/catalog/products/80218458/#/00218457 . I think there is a lot of different opinions on which or what kind of surface to use for putting hifi components on. Is that kind ok? Im thinking to underneath the components with some stronger material, so - component - stronger block - ikea table? I saw some litlle circes or smth. to pud under components...is that necessary? What do you use?

2. Speakers. At the moment I dont yet have speaker standers to put speakers on (by the way - which one do you prefer?).

So the question is where to put my bookshelf speakers, for the best sound. Near the wall, 1m or so before the wall, ...

For now im thinking to put them on hifi table at sides, but i dont know if i have to underneath it with something...I mean solid plate or something. Also I saw some spikes or sometnig to put under them (mostly with floorstanders) - is this necessary with bookshelfs.

Anyway, sorry for my broken english...its been a while and most sincerelly thank to anyone who will try to help." title="? " width="17" height="16" class="smiley-class smileysProcessed" />

you might wanna cough up 90-100 quid more and get the more powerful and better sounding pma720,that way you wont have to upgrade in a year or so..

Yup, there are a large number of amps at around the £350 mark that are streets better than the PMA-520AE even though the PMA-720AE is at the lower end of them according to the WhatHiFi review in the current month's issue. Rotel best just ahead of Marantz with Onkyo oding well too.

Personally, I'd recommend demoing the Marantz PM6004, works really nicely with my BX2s.

certainly a better amp than the pma520 for sure

Thanks guys...Im really glad that Ive looked deeper on to the amplifiers...Well, I think that I will go at least with Denon PMA720. But Ill will look at Marantz for sure. Now that I read both rewies and some other info, I see that Denon is quite weak... According to the rewiev, Marantz is a better amp, and also it has a Phono input for turnatables, i think.

John so youre satisfied with BX2 - Marantz PM6004 combo? Can you tell me something more of it?

There is only one small con against Marantz. I think that it hasnt got PRE-AMP unit, so it is impossible to upgrade the speaker sistem with center or woofer speaker, right? Denon got the Pre-AMP unit. Only pro?

Whats with yours experiance John. Are two BX2 speaker enough or did you thought to boost them with center/woofer speaker at some point?

Once again...sorry for broken english and many thanks!