This will tell you how varied my personal choices are.

If you're going for just 2 channel listening first, go listen to some Sonus Faber's Concertinos or Concertos. They really blew me away after listening to a bunch of speakers at around the same price point.

For a five channel system, my M&K K-5s still blow me away. I use them in the front three channels and you could add K-4s to fill in the surrounds. The only catch with these is that you would definately need a subwoofer.

To be fair, the best thing for you to do is to find your local hi-fi shops, take along a favorite cd or two, and have fun listening to as many different brands as possible.