Thirsty, You probably need to clarify your budget for everyone. I recently did a bit of research into this topic for my basement, which is under construction. I started by going to Hifi Buys (Tweeter) to listen to what they had. The Boston Accostics sounded great, but the pricetag was outside of my budget. Then, I gave a listen to a pair of Niles CM6MP, which sounded very good. At that point, I thought that I had my mind made up. But, the research bug continued to delay my purchase.....that and the growing budget constraints. Finally, while digging through the Parts Express site for banana plugs and in-wall speaker wire, I started poking around their speakers. I decided to take the plunge and buy a pair of DAYTON 6-1/2" 2-WAY ENCLOSED CEILING SPEAKERs. They were a lot less money and I had heard positive things about the Dayton line, regardless of their cheap pricetag. Though they are not yet installed, I gave them a listen already.
First impressions: Speakers have unusual clarity for the money. At first, I thought that it was very poor sounding. But, I then changed source CD and realized that I wasn't hearing crappy speaker white noise. I was hearing clarity for the first time (pre-Axiom purchase). With a quality source CD, these speakers sounded pretty darn good. The base obviously wasn't spectacular, but you're not going to get that for the $.
In the end, it all depends how much you want to spend. In my case, I decided to go the less expensive route. My advice above applies to you if you want to cap your costs at either $200/pair or $100/pair respectively.
Good Luck
