I live in northwest PA, about 30 minutes south or Erie. This area has a serious lack of high end audio stores and noone i know has done anything with home theater, infact i'm the only person in my circle that even has a plasma tv.

common sense is telling me to buy the m22's with the ep500. It would be alot easier to upgrade the mains at a later date and move the 22's into another room than it would be to convince my wife i need a 2nd subwoofer later on.

BUT....I Love tower speakers...can't someone just reassure me that the 50's are awesome and the naysayers don't know what they're talking about

Thanks for the input so far, it's helping me narrow things down.