If you want new speakers on that budget, Fry's sometimes has great sales on the Infinity Primus p363s. They have decent bass so you may not feel you need a sub if you get a pair of those; you may not want powerful bass in an apartment anyway. You can often get the Primus speakers for as low as $110 a speaker. I would wait to see if they have a black friday deal on the Primus tower speakers at fry's and consider a pair of those if they do. The Monitor Audio speakers would be great too, and I am guessing they would have better highs, but it might be tricky to find a matching center to that speaker, and also likely expensive, which is something to consider if you want to expand out to 5.1. The Primus center speaker is a very good one, and easy to find and also inexpensive.