OK, first of all I'm 18 years old and from England, and I take great pleasure in rattling both the neighbours on the street and my parents in the house. I recently upgraded from a horrible PC 5.1 sound system, totalling 65w RMS, to a Yamaha RX-V657 Receiver, an Infocus X2 Projector, (DVD player supplying progressive scan signal via component video), a VP-100 centre channel speaker, and 4x M3ti's for the front and surround channels. (The reason for the front channels being the same size as the back being that I enjoy listening to music with small gatherings as background, therefore I require the same sound from all sides when enjoying music. From this setup I have a number of queries as I am fairly new to the whole idea.

However, so far I am EXTREMELY impressed with the clarity and lack of distortion even at high volumes with the Axiom speakers. I do believe however that the VP-100 sounds the weakest link in the setup.

My queries are as follows:

1) Is this configuration too small for my room? It is approximately 12' by 13' and is around 8' high. I am restricted to bookshelf speakers due to certain furniture arrangements. (This is my bedroom, and I do realise that this does penalise me due to poor acoustics)

2)Is the receiver I have too small for the speakers? It only amplifies 95w per channel, and I understand the power handling of my speakers is much greater. Does this mean that my maximum safe volume will be lower than that of a higher-spec amplifier?

3)As you may have noticed, I do not yet have a subwoofer, as I do not know enough about them. I am on a very tight budget due to my age, and I understand that my receiver is currently outputting the LFE channel through the 2 M3ti's on the front left and right channels. I am worried that this channel will be causing damage to my m3ti's, however there appears to be no audible distortion at the higher volumes. I have considered the 175w subwoofer from Axiom, however I am NOT a big fan of overpowering bass within music (I am a LEAD guitarist and therefore I find bass intrusive). My question is will this subwoofer compliment my system? What effect will this have on my music? I don't want the bass to sound like it is only coming from one location, nor do I want the bass to be overpowering. I have no idea when it comes to setting crossover frequencies, and I have no idea how the subwoofer connects i.e. if it has its own crossover, does this mean the LFE channel will be partially output via the M3ti's? I had a listen to my relation's BOSE sound system and was not impressed, overpowering bass being one major drawback along with a tinny sound from the tiny satellites. I am currently very happy with the sound when I play music, (I use my PC with a high-end sound card to perform high-quality guitar recordings and as a jukebox to play music) as I feel the bass is more than adequate which worries me when looking at purchasing a subwoofer in order to take full advantage of the LFE channel. What effect will this have on my music listening? Would a 125w sub be a compromise? Although I do like a lot of bass in movie viewing.

Thankyou for your time, I understand this is a long post, any replies will be greatly appreciated. Axiom speakers are very impressive for the price, and hearing the BOSE system of my relation gave me great satisfaction when it was no comparison to my system. I hope to soon have, in my opinion, the prefect system for my room. I'm sure there will be more queries as I continue to add to the system.