First up, good job on not allowing those awful Bose cube speakers into your house! They've no place in any self-respecting audio fan's home
Next, if you'd like to start with a good pair of floor standing tower speakers and then expand to a full 5.1 speaker set in the future, there's no better choice out there than the 2nd generation (all model numbers end in a "2"
) Andrew Jones Pioneer speakers! They are a landmark in price : performance. And they are just plain "good" speakers. Not "for the price". Just good. Which is remarkable. When you consider their price, they are astonishing.
You'll want to start with the SP-FS52 towers. Right now, they are going for $125 EACH (so $250 for 2 of them to make your Front Left & Right pair) at
Best Buy and
Amazon
The other stores that carry the Andrew Jones Pioneer speakers are:
TigerDirect
parts-express
B&H Photo
At the moment, the $125 Each price at Best Buy and Amazon is the lowest on the SP-FS52 towers, but they are often on sale for $100 each. Just keep an eye on all 5 of those sites. There's a very decent chance that Black Friday will bring along that $100 Each sale price at at least one of them
Given your smaller room size, the
HSU STF-2 would be my top recommendation for a subwoofer. At $350 + $43 shipping it's not exactly cheap. But I have to stress to you how important the subwoofer is in a home theater system. The subwoofer is what makes it FEEL like you are "at the movies". And high quality bass reproduction simply cannot be done for cheap. It takes what it takes. And going lower in price here means very obvious compromises that are plainly audible and easy to notice. I realize that folks with a lower budget might want very much to spend less. All I can say is that the subwoofer is the one componentn where you MUST NOT skimp. It's just a waste of money.
One slightly less expensive alternative is the
BIC PL-200, which Amazon is selling for $329 + free shipping. That's about as low as you can go in price before it becomes less than worth your while. If you can't afford this $350-ish price range, I'd recommend that you either do without a subwoofer for a while and just rely on the bass coming from the SP-FS52 tower speakers, or that you go as cheap as possible on the subwoofer so that you can save up and afford a proper subwoofer that much sooner!
If you want a subwoofer for as little money as possible, the
Onkyo SKW204 for $145 still manages to bring a smile to my face whenever I hear it. It's not in the same league as the STF-2. The HSU STF-2 really is what you should be aiming for. But at least the SKW204 sounds quite pleasing, and it's cheap, so it doesn't take too big a bite out of your wallet, and you'd be able to save up again that much more quickly
After getting the tower fronts, then the subwoofer, you can get either the Center speaker or the surrounds. So long as you have good Front Left & Right speakers and you sit in between them, you can get a very convincing "phantom" center effect without physically having a Center speaker. I've run many systems with no physical Center speaker at all. But it all depends on your setup. The job of the Center speaker is to anchor dialogue to the TV screen. For people who are sitting off to either side, this is important. The "phantom" center effect only works if you are seated in between the Front Left & Right speakers so that their stereo imaging can create the "phantom" center effect.
Just so you are aware though, you cannot run your system with only a Center speaker. AV Receivers won't allow you to turn the Front Left & Right speakers off. The Front L/R speakers are ALWAYS on by default with any AV Receiver. So you MUST start with a Front Left & Right pair of speakers as the minimum.
The matching Pioneer Center is the SP-C22. Right now, Amazon has the best price on that at $93.
The matching Pioneer bookshelf speakers for surrounds are the SP-BS22-LR. They are sold as a pair. Right now, TigerDirect has the best price on those at $100 for the pair.
Like I say, keep an eye on all 5 of the websites that sell the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers. Prices go up and down. But the cheapest is usually about $100 and the most expensive is about $130.
Finally, to power it all, check out
this thread here . In it, I detail the Denon AVR-1712, AVR-1713 and AVR-1912, all from accessories4less.com . You should also check your local Best Buy. They are clearing out the AVR-xx12 models right now! So you might be able to find a really good price.
That's it! You'll notice that the recommendations you'll find here are all very similar. That's because these really are the best performing, lowest cost products available at the moment. The Pioneer 2nd Gen Andrew Jones speakers are unbeatable for the price. The Denon AVR Receivers are a steal from either accessories4less or on clearance from Best Buy retail stores. I suspect the only sticking point might be the subwoofer. Like I say, there's just no way to sell a subwoofer for cheaper than about $350 without making obvious sacrifices to the sound quality. High quality bass is difficult to reproduce. Do NOT skimp on the subwoofer. It is well worth every penny to buy a good one. I can promise you that
Hope that helps!
