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My HT room has been professionally designed by an acoustician for balanced freq. response (no issues there).



It sounds like you're putting a lot of effort in to getting a great sounding theater. My impression from your post is that you want floorstanding speakers. So, I would not just buy a 5.1 system you can afford now and then upgrade to a 7.1 Rather, I would ensure I got the right speakers first (the ones you want) and possibly start of with just mains and surronds.

Skip on the center and sub for now and look at floorstanders which will give decent bass until you save up for the sub/center. You don't want to get something that will have you thinking about upgrading shortly.

Alternatively, look at the HSU subs as they are have some great prices on the STF-2 & STF-3 right now.

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