Hi Fab, always nice to see a fellow Canuck show up. I have heard that ventriloquist setup, and with an STF-2 sub you have a system that will destroy most similar sized cube speaker packages and as far as I'm concerned anything close to its own price bracket. The HSU package you are looking at is a hell of a deal in my opinion. Bigger speakers will sound better, there is no way around that fact, but for small, form fitting speakers that can fill a room when coupled with a sub, I do think that the ventriloquist is THE leader in value. You did know that HSU (manufacturer of the vent. setup) has dealers in Canada now right? Prices are pretty comparable to the US once you convert the dollars. Out of the receivers you are looking at the real bargin in Canada is the Pioneer 1015. It goes on sale every once in a while at BB for about $500 to $600 and that is a great deal up here. I have found that Pioneer, Yamaha, and Marantz (changing now that they are owned by Denon) don't gouge as badly as other manufacturers up here. I've found the very worst price wise to be Harman Kardon But Denon is bad as well. Nad is actually very reasonably priced here for what you get, but the company that owns NAD is Canadian and they are well out of what you're looking to spend. Did you know Best Buy sells Denon up here now as well for pretty decent prices? The model numbers are different but they carry models that are equivilant up to the 2106 model. As for speakers my suggestion is to buy Canadian if you don't wind up going the HSU route. There are some great Canadian companies that are very well regarded among audio enthusiasts. 4 brands very famous for high quality/reasonable cost ratios are: PSB (I own them they are located in Pickering), Paradigm, Energy, and Axiom. Axiom is online only at axiomaudio.ca. Good luck and if you have any questions just let me know.
