getting a little obsessed with my first purchase

I'd suggest a pair of Totem Rokk's, they come up for sale here every now and then ~$500. Go to Totem's website and take a look, they are really nice speakers (both visually and sonically). Jeff

i've heard the def tech's. they are very good speakers, but you also might want to look into b&w 601's and 602's (series 2, which unlike the s1's have the same tweeter as the much more expensive nautilus line). they go for about $250 (601's) - 400 (602's)used. you could probably get a pair of 602 s2's for your fronts, 601 s2's for the rears, and the matching center for right around $800 used. these are very, very good speakers. equally at home with music and theatre. for your size room, they should be perfect (you might even be okay with 4 601's + center).

i think it would be a little premature to drop $700-800 on two speakers given your current set up. if you're talking $700-800 used, your up in the $1200-1600 retail range for a (i'm guessing here) <$400 A/V receiver? i think it would be much more worthwhile to use that money for a full set-up of b&w's (or something comparable). to be honest, it might be worth it to buy a pair of used 602's and spend the rest of your allocated money on upgrading to a nice two channel integrated amp (there are some great ones out there for $400-500 used). however, given that the sony was a gift from a very thoughtful GF, i can see how that would be virtually impossible!

the 601's and 602's are speakers that will last you through quite a long chain of upgrades. they are that good. plus, since b&w just released the series 3 versions, used s2's are going for very reasonable prices. throw in a decent pair of stands, and you are looking at a fine entry level HT/2 channel rig.

happy listening,
EWHA

I had a VERY bad experience with the 2006tl. Read my review on audioreview.com for details. I would stay away from power towers if I were you. I went with B&W N804s instead - quite a jump in price, I know, but well worth it.

Can't really make any recommendations at this point. But, I'll reiterate that I didn't like the 2006tl AT ALL. Many others may disagree, but I think you can do better.

I would stay away from the Def. Tech's. They are not, in my mind, close to the best you could do for that price. You don't see TOO many used on this site because Def. Tech isn't considered (by many, not all) to be a true high performance loudspeaker. Hence, many people who own these speakers don't frequent this site.

My picks (used, of course) for you would be:

Triangle Zephyr
B&W Matrix 805's
ProAc Tablette 2000's
Meadowlark Kestral Hot Rods

I would lean toward monitors in your case, because of your smaller room. If you go with monitors, however, factor in at least another 100 for decent stands. Cheers!

Brian

The Snell recommendation sounds like a good one, haven't heard the Zephyrs, but know they're highly thought of by some well informed 'philes. With smaller speakers (pretty much the only way to go w/ your room size), good stands are important. Not sure what sonic attributes you're after, but would agree w/EWHA that you'll need to upgrade the front end and your amplification to get a good idea of what your speakers are capable of. I saw a pair of Spendor sp1's go for $500 on this site a couple of weeks ago. They don't come up often (for good reason). Usually these are the last things to go when a person who owns them falls prey to the dreaded (seldom dormant) upgrade disease. You'll have to spend a lot of bucks before they become the weak link in your system.
Good Luck-