The comments on speaker and room matching are really important. Only problem is that there are also no givens there, mostly because there's so much overlap in what you can get in bookshelf and floor systems. You can do your research and all but in the end you have to try 'em out to know if they're too small, too big, or just right.
And from everything I'd ever heard & read, 2-way vs. 3-way is not a simple call - there are advantages & disadvantages to both. Crossovers are just one part of it - there are other compromises in 2-way systems (phase modulation, etc.) so in the end it's the overall design & execution quality of the whole system that matters (plus you'll still likely need a sub w/ a 2-way). There might be more than just marketing to why B&W, Paradigm, etc. do something more that 2-way toward the top of the line.
A 1-way (look ma! no crossover!) would be the most wunnerful if crossovers were the biggest/only issue. But only certain tiny-cube companies would do stuff like that???
