Which Home Theater speakers for under $28,000.

Martin Logan
1pr Ascent i- 4,300
2pr Aeon i- 6,600
1ea Theater i- 2,795 (discontinued but still in stock at some retailers)
2ea Descent subwoofer- 2,795 x 2

Lexicon MC-4 - 4,495 (same as MC-8 w/o multi zone cappability, Lexicon trade-in program for upgrades later on)

Parasound
A51- 4,000
A21- 2,000

Retail 29,780
Package price 25,495
Leaves enough in budget to hire a good installer and pay for all wiring.

All you need after that is a display (probably DLP projector, last years model Sharp, Runco, InFocus, or the like), screen, and $1,000 Japoneese DVD player.

Good luck!

You can do a full Vandersteen system (5A main speakers, VCC-5 center channel, VSM Signature surrounds, and two 2Wq subs) for about $22k. This is one hell of a system, which is also outstanding for music. The current issue of "The Perfect Vision" chose the Vandersteen system as one of its two selections for its top-rated home theater setup.

Do you want it more for Music or Movies, or an even Mix? It's important because you have a great budget, but do you want to by a great projector, with super resolution? Or, do you want the sound to rock your world as a listening room? Does your $28k include your furinture?

I second sdcampbell's recomendation for the Vandy system. You'll be hard pressed to do better. The Martin-Logans are beautiful to look at and sound good too, but for home theater useage, if you play loud, you might not get the dynamic range the Vandy's can give you, that you might well need for a HT setup in the price category that you are looking into.

IMHO Martin Logans are too loose in bass for music, I would look at Eminent Tech for Speakers, second vote for both the Parasound and Lexicon!
Dont let the Eminent Technology price tag fool you, they will run circles around alot of speakers....something like $5000 would get you a complete 7 channel, then get a fast sealed sub for your .1 and you are set for a LONG time!