I use audioengine A-5s in a 2.1 set-up (the speakers have an RCA out that can be used for a sub). It works well and fills up a large sized room roughly the size of the OP's room. There is no problem whatsoever with the clarity of dialogue either. Stereo works well for speech. The Audioengine A-5s have two inputs but I have never managed to get the TV to work right with the speakers. I have fixed analog out which I don't want to use since I would lose volume control. The headphone out leads to some weird noise that I don't think is a ground loop problem but rather a defect in the headphone out itself. So I don't use it for the TV but I do use it for movies that I stream from a mac mini that I have attached to the TV. The A-5s are great speakers, blend well with a sub, and work very well for music and movies. The one problem with them is the lack of a pre-amp of some sort when you have multiple sources since they only have 2 inputs and no remote for volume control. If you already own a pre-amp or an integrated amp/receiver that you can use as a preamp, I think this set-up would work very well. If you use a computer as a source as I do, then a device with multiple digital inputs, a good quality dac, and a remote would be perfect but there are not a lot of those floating around. Peachtree Audio makes some very good ones but they are a bit pricey; it's a great DAC/headphone amp/amp combo with a remote though and would pair well with the A-5s. The emotiva XDA-1 might be a great alternative given its price but the reviews I've read are not all positive so I've hesitated in buying one. An alternative would be to go with the ZVOX 575 HSD (or its smaller sibling) since it has digital inputs and makes for a clean set up since the TV goes on top of the box. I'm thinking of getting one and using the Audioengines purely for music fed via the SB Touch since the SQ is very good; or I might go with the preamp/dac combo if I find one I like.
