I just set up a system myself which is designed, first and foremost, for music and secondarily for home theatre. This is a budget system, certainly not audiophile grade. Despite this I am quite satisfied with the compromises I have chosen. My room is just slightly larger than yours. The system: Onkyo TS-DX494 receiver (55 clean, conservative watts/ch - comparable to many rated at about 100 watts... $250), Axiom M3ti mains (these are incredible speakers - the best part of my system!... give them a try, I would be VERY surprised if you decided to return them!). I'm using a PSB Alpha Subsonic 5 sub - I was actually looking for a smaller, cheaper sub but I found a deal I couldn't refuse ($260) so I spent a bit more than I'd planned. Unfortunately, Axiom doesn't have anything in this price range. The cheaper sub I was considering was the Yamaha 105 which is normally about $150 at Best Buy. This has gotten some good reviews (audioreview.com - a very helpful site) for a small sub... for a center channel I bought a Merak MC634 from the ubid auction site. Merak is the budget line of speakers made by Colquhoun Audio Labs (Axiom is their high quality line). No, it's not the same build quality but for $39 plus (somewhat inflated) shipping it is a great value! This model has two 6 1/2" woofers and a titanium tweeter and seems to work well with the M3s. Center channel is mostly dialog and the Merak sounds very clear. For surrounds I got the "Kenwood" KVS-64s, also from the ubid site. ($98/pair, but you might get a better price if you're patient as batches of these are offered on a regular basis) Each of these has two 4 1/2" woofers and, you guessed it, two titanium tweeters. These are very well built and work great as surrounds (mostly effects, often somewhat ambient) and not bad for music either considering their size. These are made for Kenwood by a first class Canadian speaker manufacturing company (hint-hint)... I just got this system set up and checked it out by watching the Pearl Harbor DVD (I use a Panasonic RV-31 which I also use to play CDs) and the sound was beautifully clear, detailed and plenty loud... and it's even better with music (using just the M3tis and Sub). Canadian speakers rock! Yes, I'm sure there are much better systems out there - but for this amount of money? If you can afford better (all Axioms) go for it but decent budget components aren't always so bad, believe me.
