Which Home Theater speakers for under $28,000.

Martin Logan
1pr Ascent i- 4,300
2pr Aeon i- 6,600
1ea Theater i- 2,795 (discontinued but still in stock at some retailers)
2ea Descent subwoofer- 2,795 x 2

Lexicon MC-4 - 4,495 (same as MC-8 w/o multi zone cappability, Lexicon trade-in program for upgrades later on)

Parasound
A51- 4,000
A21- 2,000

Retail 29,780
Package price 25,495
Leaves enough in budget to hire a good installer and pay for all wiring.

All you need after that is a display (probably DLP projector, last years model Sharp, Runco, InFocus, or the like), screen, and $1,000 Japoneese DVD player.

Good luck!

Will not defend my recomendations on any level. Will explain them though. This is a large room you are working with. Electrostats will not reach the absurdly loud volume levels that horns will and will not sound like the local cinema multi-plex. They will reach reasonable volume levels with the big ol' Parasound amps for anyone who still has enough hearing left to tell the difference between quality components (can we give him credit for still having this ability?). The Logans will do something that few other speakers will do though. Because the sound comes from a curved pannel approxamately 4 ft in height you can expect the seamless integration of 7 speakers in a huge room (given good processing). No you will not be able to reach the volume levels that you would with 7 JBL horn-loaded speakers. If loud were your only concern you would not be at this level of gear though. Also in a room that size you will benefit from two subwoofers and a pre-pro with great tweakability. Since your budget is larger than I thought you may want to consider the Lex MC-12. Do qualify your installer though. A good installer can make a 10K system sound better than many 40K systems by proper speaker placement and processor set-up.

Good luck!