Hey LMGotts, give kit speakers a serious consideration, especially for the budget you have. There's someone else besides myself who's gotten the taste of DIY quality. I'll back up zacster's words. My experience with Madisound's speaker kit was a pleasant surprise. I bought their Vifa A/V and Solo kit for my HT and it was money well spent (& saved). I hear more people commenting on how good these speakers sound. They compare to those costing $1000 or more per pair. Clarity and details are fantastic for speakers costing only $260 each. My friends are upset after listening to my speakers because they spent more on theirs than I did and yet don't sound as good as mine. Part of commercial brand's price comes from cosmetic design (not that Madisound's kit looks bad), advertising, middleman's fee and ... etc. What you end up getting after all that taken out isn't much. Or you'll have to pay a lot more to get the quality. Skip all the name brands and get the DIY kit. You won't be disappointed.

As for the sub, once again, DIY kit can't be beat for price vs. performance. I have Adire Audio's Shiva with homemade enclosure and I couldn't be happier for spending only $400 on it. Look up www.acoustic-visions.com/ for products and www.audioreview.com/pscSpeakers/Subwoofers for reviews on Shiva. The commercial brands at that price range? Forget it. Mine outperforms a $1000 sub by Klipsch. While typical subs from brands like Polk, Paradigm, Infinity, Velodine and JBL can bark like a German shepherd, Shiva roars like a lion. Again, skip all the name brands and get the DIY kit. You won't be disappointed.