Old Polk rm-6500 have to go, but need help

[pitt1717]

Sorry for the long post, but bare with me.

I have an Onkyo tx-sr800 and also the polk rm 6500 5.1 speakers and a psw350 sub.
These are the ones that Polk wants you to run the fronts to the sub, then the sub to the receiver. too many wires for me so i set them up the traditional way. After i bought them i though they sounded ok and figured they needed some tweaking. after some time i realized they just suck. Dialog is always low and have to increase the center in the receiver in order to hear but i know the rest of my sound is off.
My room is about 17x15 and looking for similar speakers which i can mount to the walls, as i have kids (3 and 5) and do not want any floor standing speakers.

so my question is, what are my options? do you think it would sound ok if i got a good pair of fronts and center and kept the sub and satellites? Do they have to be Polk, can i get something else? viewing is strictly movies as tv sounds horrible due to reasons above i believe. if i could get good sound, i would probably use them all the time.

thanks for any help..

 

[sholling]

You don't give a budget but if you want something that will work well on the walls for cheap then Infinity Primus P162 bookshelves with a PC250 center and P152 bookshelves as surrounds would get you a set of front ported speakers for under $480 shipped. If you had to you could wait on the surrounds and save $150 by using the Polks. The sub that you have will be the weak link but should be fine until the kids are a couple of years older and unlikely to put a pencil through the driver of a $500 subwoofer so that they can see what's inside.

 

[zieglj01]

Would like to know the budget.