I have an opinion about this. WHile I don't know buttkiss about STREEM speakers, and they seem like they're trying to overwhelm buyers with size and specs, rather than satisfy them with sound - I wouldn't necessarily recommend against buying the speaker set.
Here's why...For the last 4-5 years, I have had a really terrible shelf system. Low wattage, poor frequency response, bad imaging, poor build quality, boomy bass, etc. BUT I LOVED IT!
It served me very well for those 4-5 years. And I only spent $400 bucks or so on it. Granted, I now wish that I had bought higher quality components etc. back then and truly enjoyed the home tehater experience - but let's face it. All of those old components would now be obsolete. The receiver probably would not have had DTS. Forget any of the ES or EX decoding. Forget component inputs, or video switching, etc. Forget YPAO, 2nd room capability, yada yada...
For the price, at the time, I couldn't beat my little 5.1 shelf system. And it served me well for the time that I had it.
In all, it basically tided me over until I coudl afford to buy a better HT system that I got to compose based on my needs and desires, whcih I didn't know 5 years ago.
If your friend must simply have to get an HT, must do it all at once, and must do it on the cheap - LET HIM. He'll come around soon enough. Sure, he might be throwing away money (in our minds) for lesser components, but it may be all that he needs to satisfy him now.
Home Theater is a disease, and most of us on the boards have the bug. Others are immune to it, and once they get soudn coming from all around the room, they are satisfied, without reagrd to the quality of that sound. And, then, they'll have money left over for the other things in their life that they enjoy.
Not a diatribe - just a bit of insight from my personal experience
