Another Two Centavos
Hey ScoBro --
I think you can set up a good set of speakers for your budget. First, I agree that it's not important to "timbre match" the sub and the rest of the speakers. I'm not convinced that the low-freqs have any particular timbre, anyway. My advice is based on that assumption. Some folks may think my advice is bass-ackwards, but here you go.
I would first select the sub. (Why? Because a good sub will make your other speakers sound good but a bad sub will make good speakers sound bad. This is even more important if you are going for satellites -- see below.)
Visit some websites to get an idea of what you can get for the money. SV Subwoofers and HSU and Outlaw Audio offer really good subwoofer values, IMO. Also check out Definitive Technology, since a couple of months ago they were moving out their "old" (award-winning) subs on the cheap. Axiom Audio also offers an entry-level sub that you should check out.
I'm not sure that you can really audition a subwoofer in a store. So much depends on the system that's running it and where the cross-over is set, and (of course) the room acoustics. My method (for what it's worth) was to ask all my friends who had HT systems what they liked and why, and to listen to their systems as much as possible. I also read reviews (from this site and elsewhere) to see what the "professionals" had to say. After my research (done about 4 months ago), I was down to three finalists: SV, Outlaw Audio, and Definitive Tech. I thought they offered the best combination of quality, sound, and value for my price range. But do your own research!
Once you've selected your sub, you will know how much money you have left over for the rest of your system (5 speakers, right? ). Axioms are popular here (I have a set myself) as are other brands such as Paradigm. I'm told that Atlantic Technology and Energy offer good value for price. Get the best speakers you can for your remaining budget -- but the good news about speakers is that you can always upgrade in the future if you have to make budget compromises today.
My speaker theory is that I don't audition them in stores either, for the same reasons I don't audition subs. I listen to my friends' systems, I read reviews and--most importantly--I look at the technical graphs to see how flat the speakers perform over the 20 - 20,000 frequency range. My ears might fool me based on room acoustics and other set-up thingees, but (in theory) the graphs don't lie. In my personal view, the best speakers are the flattest over the widest frequency range. But that's just me and what I used as a criterion.
I agree that towers sound better than satellites. Why? Well, I'm no expert, but this is what I think I know: Towers tend to have more and/or bigger drivers, which push out more sound at a wider range of frequencies than satellites, which are (generally) designed to only push out specific frequencies, relying on the sub or the other speakers to handle the rest. If you can afford it, you would want your speakers to handle as much of the load as possible.
(But a lot of folks set their speakers to "small" meaning that the speakers don't handle the full range anyway. So it may not really matter a heck of a lot anyway.)
As I mentioned above, if you have a really great sub then satellites will likely work for your initial HT system. I know a friend who ran Bose cubes and a really kick-*** M&K subwoofer, and his system sounded pretty sweet. But lots of folks will tell you (probably correctly) that my friend's system lacked the ability to really pump out the higher frequencies. The thing is, my friend's theory was that, in HT the voices (mids and lower mids) and the lower freqs were more important that the highs, so he selected his speakers accordingly, based on what he could afford. If you listen to music through your system, you might not go the same way as my friend did.
Apologies for the length of the post! Good luck!
Zarg
