This is what I have narrowed my speaker search to.

1) Axiom - M22 for the fronts, QS4 for the surrounds and the VP100 center.
2) Polk - RTi6 for the fronts, FXi3 for the surrounds and the CSi3 center.

The Axiom setup is a few $100's more, but I like the M22's dual woofers. I will be powering the speakers with a Yamaha 5890 and will hopefully get a Velodyne sub a few months after I get everything else.

The SVS system keeps coming up, but cannot find out much info about them.

I need some non-partisian input please.

Thanks,

I reubenray, the topic of Polk versus Axiom has been discussed on countless occasions on these forums. You might want to search for Axiom AND Polk using the search tool.

Personally, I don't put Polk in the same league as Axiom after my testing/auditioning a few years ago.

An inproved search tool.

LINK

With the search you'll find a lot of stuff about a lot of different speakers from each company. I'll try to give you some specifics. I have a Polk (RTi8s, CSi5, FXi3s, Velodyne CHT12) home theater and have Axiom M22s for stereo in another room. I am very happy with both systems. You can't go wrong with either system you are considering, but I'd probably go with the Axioms. You'll probably like the M22s and QS4s better than the Polk options. The CSi series is outstanding but I wouldn't go Polk just for that since you'll probably like 4/5 Axiom speakers better. It seems as though you are limited to bookshelfs up front and I agree with you that the M22 seems to be better set up to push more air and I consider that a big factor.

As for subwoofers, I love my Velodyne, but I have seen reviews suggesting that the Hsu and SVS offerings in the same (<$500) price range are better.

I hope this helps.

The SVS system is pretty new. Supposed to be nice but size-wise they are more like M2 mains, while the RTi6's are M3-ish and you are looking at M22s which are... well... M22-ish.

SVS is going to be introducing some larger speakers in the future -- those would probably be more comparable to the Polk and Axiom systems you are considering.