I think everyone has pretty much covered the important parts. I'll just mention a couple of things I haven't seen yet :
1. Remember that Axiom gives you a 5% discount if you order 5 speakers or, in fact, 5 of anything. That doesn't make the center channel free but it does make it cheaper. Having said that, I agree with everyone else -- you don't *need* a center channel it just stops the sound from seeming to move left and right of the TV when you are sitting left or right...
2. There is also a "factory outlet" discount which gets you another 10%. The factory outlet speakers are new, fully warrantied, but have minor cosmetic defects which are pretty hard to notice. I bought my main and center speakers new before I tried the factory outlet for my QS surrounds -- one had what appeared to be a thumbnail mark in one edge of the wood, still haven't found the defect in the other one.
3. Make sure you get a receiver which can take the LF signals from the surrounds (and center when you get one) and route them to the mains. This is what you get when you "set the speakers to small" in your receiver. I'm pretty sure that Denons will do this automatically if you don't have a sub but maybe a Denon owner could confirm. I do know that HK receivers will NOT do this, at least I haven't figured it out.
All receivers can route the LF signals from center and surrounds (if they are set to "small") to a sub, but you're not going to have a sub for a while... and you're going to want to set the QS4s to "small" for best results. QS8s also need to be set to "small", BTW
Anyways, I think you have a good plan. My sequence was :
- start with M2s... don't risk too much $$ at first
- wow, nice... buy a sub, hook up the DVD player, WOW !!
- buy some M60s and an AV receiver, use the M2s as surrounds
- hook up some crappy surrounds and use an M2 as a center, find that it does make a difference... buy a VP100, move the M2s back to my stereo system
- buy some QS8s, use the M2s as mains (hey, I have a sub and I don't play movies too loud), move the M60s to the stereo system
Happy happy, only took 15 months...
