Which Home Theater speakers for under $28,000.

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...

Let me explain why I did this;

1. Theater requires a specific set of parameters to work properly (many early posts ignore this), the studios mix to this standard, why not conform to that standard just to make life easier? If you want to use an all dipole system with limited output than be man enough to face the criticism when you proudly tell someone to spend their hard earned money setting up their system the wrong way! And please try not to regurgitate the BS marketing as a defense, get your own ideas.

FYI Bignerd, its 7 seemless front fired waves, 7 rear fired waves (are all your speakers the same distance from the wall), what the frequency response of your drywall? So now I have 14 speakers don't I?, which was my point, but the brochure didn't bother to explain this phenomena to you or that your precious seemless panel will arc somewhere in the 106dB range.

Just go to dolby and look at the standard.

2. You guys are remarkably in sync with popular audio magazines and reviews, Magnepan, I've got atleast three 20.1 owner complaining about their midbass and bass output on MUSIC, JAZZ noless! Let alone theater. Vandersteen and Wilson number 1 and 2 theaters, see what 20 years of advertising will get you. ( although the Vandersteen still deserves most of the accolades). Look at your rec's all popular brands thank god people like Flrnlamb and RL chimed in with some stellar recs.

3. I wanted to see if you all would re-evaluate some of your pathetic recommendations, but you're all too proud and all to willing to try to discredit me(it is fun I know). Fact is maybe Flrnlamb is near my league in systems installed but with 6 stores I have to think installing systems is a distant past in his job requirements. Over 600 systems and my clients, they love me for all the reasons you hate me.

My post was about honesty and many of you have failed. My greatest critics are the ones who would simply say to Electrostaitcman what I bought is perfect for you. And now you know atleast one of us on this thread is laughing at that level of arrogance.

Even Chadnliz wouldn't fess up to the fact that the ET system max output is barely 10dB above Dolby calibration at 3M's! That's like 8dB of dynamic range for the system!

Bose Lifestyle system may not sound as good but its got more dynamic range than that!

If you didn't understand the important information in my first post, I'm sorry, but there is some good stuff there and the fact you disagree with the facts of those comments, not my problem.

Macdadtexas I am not a liar, infact based on your enthusiasm I went to hear a Magnaplanar surround system based on MG3.6's and whatever the matching stuff is. It was ok. I worked for Sound Images for two years in Falls Church, VA. Look it up they are a Gallo dealer. When Gallo makes better sounding speakers than I do, I'll start paying more attention.

I love messing with you guys...:)

You can see how people's opinions/tastes vary. I totally respect others opinions on gear selection, and everyone's taste. That's a good reason most everyone ownes different gear!...including the professional reviewers.
I've been around high end biz for almost 23 years, and it's all stuff, it's all for sale, and everyone likes something different, not to mention lifestyles.
That all said, I know the Vandersteen's sold like millions of their 2c's alone! I also know Meridian pre's are highly talked about and such. But then, I've worked in 6 high end stores over the years, and probably have known a 100 or more audiophiles personally that I've worked with/around...and none of them own Vandersteen or Meridian, nor would they ever, including me. I also understand B&W makes some nice stuff, yet I'm not intersted personally, and I've sold it in 2 different stores...just not for me, but maybe you?
I can get most any audio product for cost or bellow, and I still know what works right for movies. Music, you have choices, depending on room/setup/lifestyle/syset matching, etc. Multi-channel effective movie speaker systems need to work well in your room/setup, and be effective at delivering the dynamics, intelligibility, focus, soundstage, coherence, and detail that was intended in the mixing process. Many audiphile home offerings can't do justice to what mixing engineers of DD/DTS soundtracks intended. If you think not, just go to any good local cineplex, or even Vegas IMAX ride/experience, and see what they're using to deliver these muli-channel experiences to you, and you'll understand what works best for movies in the home...or at least what is to be accomplished. You cannot substite the speakers these venues choose for, say, some "Vandee's", B&W's, or even Logan's and such. They don't work. Anyway, even in a smaller home setting, the same attributes must be considered to get the job done. I just think the dainty audiophile offerings mostly mis the target...chose wisely.

Agree with Artizen65 on the B&W system. As an owner of several different B&W speakers, I like them for their accuracy, which is important in home theater. That said, I gave up trying to set up a combination HT and two channel music system because there are two many compromises. And I use the home theater much less than the two channel, which I listen to most every day. Further, with separate systems there is no fight for the two channel system, as my daughter can watch on the surround sound system while I enjoy my music in another room.