Which Home Theater speakers for under $28,000.

I did vandersteens! 100% happy. I have tried a whole bunch of things in the past to many to list. This is the system if you have the room the 5a need a med to bigger room.

I'm not only a custom home theater guy, with over 6 retail stores and 15 years around this business, but am a long time two channel audiphile as well.
My recommendation for effective Home theater sound is still to consider more refined sounding, yet DEDICATED HOME THEATER SPEAKER SYSTEMS...that were designed as such...not music speakers doing "double dubty". That's my first recomomendation.
Let me say that, as someone who's sold everthing from Dunlavy's to Wilson's/Thiel's, B&W's, JM Labs, Meridian's, Logan's/Maggies, all the way down to more commercial Def Tech, Klipsch, NHT, M&K, Tannoy, Polk, etc, that you can indeed spend a lot on speakers, and not get the returns for your money for an effective home theater experience, just as with 2 channel! And this is very easy to do wrong, let me tell ya.
I would still strongly suggest you consider my recommendations I previously posted elsewere, and look at the KLipsch THX stuff, and Infinity Prelude MTS system if you want more refined/flexible audiophile music. Yes, the Def tech with powered subs has good dynamics for HT, and I've sold all that.
I can get anything I want at mostly cost, or close, and I like these systems for what they do, for what they cost. They're good for even larger rooms, and sound great.
For a dedicated HT system, for a passive setup, I'd recommend the Klipsh THX wholehartedly over most out there right now. It's very affordable, and very good sounding...especially potent on HT, and more refined than commercial theater speakers by far.
Anyway, I just can't recommend anything else I've come across for that money range, even more expensive audiophile speakers I've heard.
Other choices are to go Powered speakers, like M&K THX powered 150P's, active ATC mini-monitors(acoustics need to be spot on however with this design), and similarly active models.
YOu want "focus", dynamics,dialoge inteligibility, coherence, good detail and dynamic range, and PRESSENCE from a good HT system!...not laid back audiophile speaker sound. This yields a decidedly uninvolving sound that's not thrilling or effective for movie mixes in my experience.
The other, at least as equally as important part, is getting it all set up right, tweeking it, dealing with critical acoustics, and making it all work together, no matter what you get.
Invest in good experience, and it will be superb. If not, you end up with lots of mediocrity, and ill-spent money.

I can't believe no one has chimed in with B&W yet.

Front L/R 802D 12,000
Center HTM2D 4,000
Sides/Rears 805S 1250 Ea. 5,000
Sub/Subs Velodyne SPL 1000R 1,000

Total 1 Sub 22,000
Total 2 Subs 23,000

The above said, I am very happy with my current set up which is in a room that is 11' x 23'. It does double duty as an execelent 2 channel with a home theater augment.

I would recomend you give B&K with B&W a listen or Classe' & B&W for the electronics. Unless you want execelent 2 channel.

To respond to CinematicSystems' post: the July-August 2005 issue contained the article which mentioned the Vandy 5A-based system for their "no holds barred" HT system. The other speaker system in this category was the Wilson surround system ($57k: WATT/Puppy 7 in the front, Watch center and surrounds, and Watchdog sub). For $35K difference in price between the Wilson and the Vandy systems, I'll take the Vandersteen setup and use the money I save to upgrade the room, get a better video monitor or projector, etc. -- or enjoy a couple of great dive vacations in the western Pacific.

Greetings, Electrostatman, I can see a storm brewing...
Strong opinions here.
First, your room is generous, but by no means so huge you have to get monstrous speakers. Most sizeable floor standers will suit you well.
Also, you may be getting the cart ahead of the horse; first give some time to the size and placement of the screen. Are you doing projection? Where and what will be equipment placement, including amps? Will you have any other decorative furnishings in front? Any built in cabinetry up front? These considerations can effect speaker selection! Where will you be putting your center chanel speaker, etc? This is why I suggest you do some reading in "Home Theater Builder" mag. and the like. Failure to plan, and you'll have an expensive OOOPS!
Go stand in the room and visualize for an hour or more. Think through every contingency and possible problem. Might save you a TON of money. Oh, and you may want to get your wife to stand there with you; could save a bunch of hassle later.
Maybe you need to decide which is far more important to you, two chanel listening, or HT. I have put the bulk of $ into two chanel, and about 15% into surround. I have never felt the surround to suffer, but I haven't expected the world of it either. I built the room primarily for music and secondarily for HT.
If you want a superb two chanel system, put the bulk of $ there. If that's your goal, it will be difficult to achieve with JBL, Klipsch, Definitive Technology and the like. Without disrespect to vendors, they're distortion-makers.They may sound ok when a car is crashing on screen, but turn off the video and listen to them critically and it'll hurt. As I said, Vandersteen, Magnepan, Revel, etc. will more satisfactorily achieve the sound you're chasing (don't misread me, other posters, I'm not saying they're the ultimate). Especially if you've lived with quality two chanel! If you've lived for two chanel, ignore this at your own peril.
I believe that fantastic two chanel is the base for a wonderful surround system. In fact, I will go so far as to say that one can have slight disparity between the higher quality mains and lesser quality surrounds and still be quite content. Make that decision based on the proportion of movie viewing you WILL do, not what you THINK you'll do. Just spending $28k won't make you have time to watch more movies.
If you watch a movie about once a month like me, who cares as much about the surrounds? But if you're living for the DVD player and you'll watch movies four times more than you'll listen to music, then you should think differently and place more $ on the surrounds. Just don't go and get all identical speakers for the 5 chanels! Then you'll really suffer when you listen to two chanel! Unless, of course, you plan on setting up some serious two chanel gig elsewhere...

This advice is based on combo of common sense and practical economics, and having learned the hard way of upgrading from low-fi speakers to lower-level hifi speakers. Practically speaking, if you want good quality through out your HT, then you'll need likely $15k for projection, screen, cabling, and components. Leaves about 8K or nine for mains and a 3k-ish for surrounds.
Oh, and we haven't even touched on cost of projector/television! That will skew everything also.
So, back to sqare one: What's more important to you, the sound or picture? etc...