I guess what you are asking is if I was on the market right now with a budget of $2000, what would I get that would be the best value. For me, there are a few speaker systems to consider. Bass is very important for me in a home theater or music system, so I would budget half to the subs. I'll tell you what I would do for speakers first.
For the speaker half, one thing I would definitely take seriously is the
moving sale Ascend is having, the five speakers for $1000. Those are supposed to be phenomenal speakers at their regular price, so that sale price (with free shipping) make that really hard to resist.
Another speaker package that would be enticing is SVS new STS speaker system, the
5.0 Affordable Audiophile Package. If they are still on sale for $1099, it looks like that would be a good deal. I wouldn't spend anymore than the sale price with that $2000 budget as that is already eating into the sub's share.
Elemental Designs have some very nice looking packages for excellent prices. What I would get with their
Home Theater Package Builder is a A6 6T6 tower front, A6 6t6 Center, A3 5TC bookshelf rears. That comes out to $718.25, a great price and leaves plenty left over for subs! And if you buy one or two of their fine subs with that, you get a further discount.
Also, as the above poster suggested, I would look at packages from The Speaker Company. You could get a great five speaker deal for around $800 to $900 using their TST2 or TST3 towers as fronts. I wouldn't go less than towers for fronts from TSC, and I wouldn't get any of their subs (not that they are bad subs, but with your budget you can do so so much better).
HSU has excellent speakers along with their great subs. One thing I would take really seriously is getting their
enthusiast 2 package, but replace the VTF2.3 with
TWO VTF3.3s. Since that isn't an official offering, you would have to discuss it with them, but that is a deal I believe they would be willing to cut for 2K. That would be an absolute beast of a system for 2K, I know because I already have one VTF3.3, and it is a monster, two of them would reduce me to tears and have me begging for my life. This is a serious contender for 2k.
Something else worth mentioning, AV123 has a great sale on a
ELT525 five speaker setup, for only $600. They are supposed to be very good speakers and that is a incredible markdown from their regular price. They have a package that comes with the MFW sub, but I would steer clear of their subs. Really.
Those are a few speaker packages I would consider. There are plenty more I would look at too, but I don't have time here to go over all of them. Stuff from Axiom, Paradigm, Polk, Klipsch, Infinity, Yamaha, etc. The point is I would reserve roughly half for the subwoofers.
For $1000, here are the subs I would consider:
Epik Dragon $1000
Epik Pheonix $1100
ED A7S-450 $850
ED A5 350 $800
SVS PC12 plus $950
Rythmik D15SE $1000
Rythmik F15 $900
HSU VTF3 mk3 $700
or I might get two of the following:
Outlaw Audio LFM-1 Plus Subwoofer $550
Outlaw Audio LFM-1 Compact $400
HSU VTF2 mk3 $550
HSU VTF1 $450
SVS PC12-NSD $570
SVS PB12-NSD $570
SVS PB10-NSD $450
Elemental Designs A3-300 $550
Of course, including shipping, none of the speakers are really $1000 exactly, and none of the subs are $1000 either so you have a lot of different options to mix and match. And, of course if you stick with one company for both speakers and subs, you save even more. That ED package with two A3-300s would be a amazing setup and be well south of 2K. Or, if you can go a little bit north of 2k, get the ed speaker package I recommended with the A7-450 (not to be mistaken for the A7S-450), that sub would utterly level you. The HSU deal I mentioned earlier with two VTF3s would cause the earth to quake. Or get the AV123 speaker package and get two SVS PB12s, that would beat you senseless, and you would love it. Or pair the Ascend speakers with the Epik Dragon, your neighbors will all come to hate you out of envy. There are so many great choices for 2K...
