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Decent speakers for the price. Not great but a lot better than Sony crap sold at BestBuy.

just have bought a pair of the 60's from newegg for $109 each -- and love'em.

Dont buy these just b/c theyre cheap.. Speakers are arguably the most important component of your audio system. Your amp can have all the fidelity in the world, but your speakers are what will ultimately be creating the sound. Get them because you love the sound. Not because theyre a little cheaper than others.

By themselves they will be good for music. However, for HT you will still need (or rather want) a subwoofer. Most speakers simply can't do LFE well like a sub can.

#3, depends on budget. For creating a good HT these will only be a small part of a bigger budget. My advice is always to get a receiver with pre-outs. That way someday you can upgrade the speakers and add an external amp if needed.

There seems like no limit when it comes with upgrading speakers. You can always spend more. The question is when is it good enough and how much do you want to spend.

I always look at the used market. You can get some great deals if you find a reputable seller. There is user Polkaudio on Ebay that is Polk Audio's direct selling of refurbished speakers. You can save a lot and the quality is excellent. You do get a warranty as well.

Then there is for sale markets on various audio forums. Polk has a good one where I bought some LSi9 bookshelf speakers for $500 shipped. They were practically new; they normally sell for twice this. Of course no warranty though. But I have had them for a year with no issues.

I recommended another Polk speakers to my father and he loves them. Yes, subwoofer does complement the speakers but it depends what do you want from the system. If you need to feel the bass, then 12" sub is a must. Otherwise they should be fine as is with two 6.5" woofers.

Well #3, kind of hard to buy b/c you love the sound when it's an online deal, though I suppose you could audition them if sold locally.

You don't need a receiver with pre-outs to upgrade speakers, and I doubt you'll ever need to add an external amp if you simply buy one of adequate output capability in the first place unless you end up buying some exotic speakers that are particularly hard to drive but even then, how often do you really turn the volume up even halfway? Seldom would I have the chance, neighbors next door wouldn't be very easy to get along with if I were blasting their home often.

If you want an awesome speaker buy this and replace the tweeters with horns

#7, most receivers can't handle 4 Ohm speakers, regardless what they say. Even bigger speakers that are 8 Ohms like Polk's RTi A7 or A9 really don't do well when driven by a receiver. Sure at low volumes it works OK. However, besides volume, sound quality suffers when trying to drive power hungry speakers.

If given a choice between "high-end-powerful" receiver without pre-outs versus a good receiver with the the features I want that does have pre-outs, I would pick the one with pre-outs anyday. At the very least you can get a used 2 or 3 channel amp to drive the front end and drive the remaining speakers of the receiver. Good, clean power is crucial. Receivers with "lots" of power runs over $1500. It makes no sense to buy one of those when you can get a used amp and a less-expensive receiver.

I could never drive my LSi9's (4 Ohm bookshelves that dip down to 2 Ohms at certain frequencies) off a receiver, at least I shouldn't. I heard an Onkyo 805 with these speakers once at Fry's and it sounded terrible. I have a generic Yahama receivers with external amplification and they sound great. Also, the receiver is not being stressed by these power hungry speakers.

#5, Good info. I will check there first. Nothing wrong with getting a used one (as long as it still works) and saving some $$$.