I can't comment on Canton, haven't heard them. Paradigm makes really good quality speakers that sound fine but I have never heard a Paradigm set that moved me. I just find them a bit boring. Paradigm owners relax, they're great speakers, that's just my feelings.
I did love the sound of the Signature S4s but I felt they were overpriced for how they sounded.
Don't know your situation but don't rule out internet direct. In my experience you generally get more value for the money with ID brands than B&M, plus outstanding customer service, 30-day money-back guarantee, etc. I use and highly recommend the new Swans 5.2F mains and 5.2C center from
www.theaudioinsider.com. I compared them side-by-side with a set of B&W DM604 S3s that I was very familiar with on Rotel gear and while the B&Ws had a bit deeper and tighter bass extension (they were broken in, the Swans were not), I and my engineering partner both preferred the mids and highs of the Swans. Silkier, a bit smoother, with outstanding imaging and soundstage. Beautiful looking speakers too, great value at $1K/pair. The 6.2s are I think $1300/pair and would sound the same, just more bass extension. (After living with the 5.2s for a while and breaking them in, I love their bass response and am very happy with it.)
You also said you "dont like harsh speakers, prefer accurate, laid back sound." That exactly describes the Swans 5.2Fs. Accurate and neutral but forgiving and utterly non-fatiguing. I can listen to them loud for hours with no fatigue at all. Great for home theater too. 5.2F and 5.2C will come to $1500 plus shipping for your fronts and center. The 4.2R surrounds (5.2R are coming but not available yet) are $499/pair, so $2000 for a fully matched 5 channels (except the surrounds would be a bit smaller). Wait a minute and you can get 5.2s all around. Actually if you contact Jon Lane he might have 5.2Rs in now or at least soon.
If you want to keep your budget a bit lower, look at
www.ascendacoustics.com. Everything's plain black (as far as I know; David might have added colors but no wood grains AFAIK) but the performance is truly outstanding for the price. Ascends are reknowned for extreme accuracy, and I can attest to that as I mix on CBM-170SEs with an SVS sub in my little home mixing room. I haven't heard the 340SEs but I'd love to. The Ascends feature detail, clarity, accuracy, and beautiful imaging, wonderful for home theater but great for music too. One thing to keep in mind with Ascend is that if you're using lower bitrate MP3s as I think you said you are, they will reveal ALL the flaws in both the recordings and the compression. The Swans will show up the low compression as well but you'll really hear it on the Ascends. I'd recommend sticking to higher bitrate MP3s (I use all 256 vbr or higher with LAME encoder). Play some really well-recorded material on Swans or Ascends though and you'll experience something special.
I have a cool little iPod dock you might find interesting, called the XITEL HiFi Link for iPod. If you're using Airport or something to stream directly from the PC you don't need this but to bypass the iPod's crappy headphone output I got this 3rd party dock from buy.com for only $67. It doesn't have a USB port because it's designed only to connect the iPod to your sound system, which it does via gold-plated RCA jacks instead of a 1/8" stereo jack. It also comes with a nice little remote and AC cord and it charges the iPod while docked, so that's nice. Sound quality is excellent. Can't seem to find it now at buy.com but Amazon has it
here for $70.
