Speaker advice

Although I'll not be able to say for sure what will 'send you' by way of speaker choice... One way to approach this if indeed you want to wind up with an HT system is to go with a nice pair of smaller speakers & very nice sub now.

Later on these smaller two way speakers can be rotated to act as surrounds or rears while being replaced with larger or better main speakers.

I've owned Phase Tech, Canton, B&W, Monitor Audio, Silverline and several others in various itterations. Large, small, and middle or the road. For me in music and HT it's about the blend of the sub and accompanying speakers and space.

Phase Tech offers a great value and very good performance. Canton does as well. Atainnig the proper blend is important and contributes much to your satisfaction. Many good loudspakers makers out there will do what you want... go listen to things you haven't heard yet and see... If nothing you preview floats your boat, the in home 30 day trials are a very good way to find out too... in spite of the hassles of shipping. At least that way isn't a total shot in the dark.

Good luck

I bought a pair of Silverline SR 15s for around $700. I also bought a pair of Canton 220s for much much, less. About $200. Both need a subwoofer to present a full range sound.

both are enjoyable. For Music, the SR15s have the nod.... for HT it's a toss up, with the Silverlines having a better tweeter... both were used as surround/rear speakers in the HT setup. Meaning one doesn't hafve to go crazy spending tons of $$$ for non main or center loudspeakers.

In HT the sub is IMO, more important than the pheripheral speakers.

The Cantons will likely replace the SR15s as rears, and the 15s will move into the actual surrounds if I decide to use the two extra ch's of my 7.1 HT. I use only 5.1 now.

My point here is that initially, or right now, the addition of as good a sub as you can afford is going to be a better place to put your money than into monitor speakers which ultimately are going to wind up as non main channel info speakers. Buying just good there is going to be quite sufficient. until you are ready to cross that bridge at some later date, I assure you having good/nice monitors and a very good sub will be quite enjoyable.... for music and HT.

This way too, you can likely afford some nice stands for them as well.

Enjoy. Regardless your choice (s).

STEREOPHILE KEF IQ9 REVIEW:

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/206kef/

several others in this price range are also reviewed, and compaired to each other... do look also at the associated gear list in the side bar.

What drives the speakers is important too by many accounts.