See we all have different tastes, I personally can not stand to listen to multi channel music, it hurts my soul... I use the 200se's for surrounds and I tried the 170's but with movies the 200s do more than enough and them 170s looked silly hanging from my ceiling, they are quite large... I set up my mothers system with the flunace surrounds {you may remember the thread} and they sound great, but I wouldn't want to use them for multi ch music... If I was going for multi ch music I would use all the same speaker all the way around...
I think the op should start over, I don't know what they sell in canada, but going to do some listening would be a good step... I hate to see him buy the ascends if he can't stand the looks of them, he will never be happy with them if aesthetics are very important. To my they are in my living room and the looks don't bother me, they are just speakers, where my other systems are in rooms where we entertain and looks were more important...
how about this set, I believe they ship for free to canada too...
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO S-Series 5.1 Home Theater Speaker Package | Accessories4less