A friend of mine was looking at these speakers:

Insignia NS-B2111
Best Buy Website (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7705307&st=insignia&lp=7&type=product&cp=1&id=1138085354138)

He has started building a new home theater and has been building a little entertainment center for himself. He is looking for something cheap to go with an HK 247 and an STF-1 subwoofer. He was going to spend more money and buy some axiom bookshelfs, but decided to divert money to a 52" LCD television.

He was thinking of putting these cheapies in there to fill the void, running them in both the fronts and backs with a phantom center until he can get the money to upgrade.

The big question is, are these the best for the money? I know they won't be much, but we are looking at $200 for fronts and backs for the time being... and I'd just like to see him get acceptable sound until he can get something nice (especially since I had a hand in getting him into the 52" XBR4 LCD).

He is going to be doing 90% home theater, with the other 10% being music that doesn't sound good out of any speakers..

Anyone have anything better for the price? Any comments?

Hmm... that's a pretty tight budget. Here's something else you might consider, though I haven't heard them before:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=250-680

Also, if you're somehow lucky, you could maybe find a Fry's by you with the Polk R50's in stock. They are $60 each at frys.com, but usually the shipping is what pushes them into the $80 each territory. In-store pick-up is free though, but I don't know if you live by a Fry's or if a Fry's by you has them in stock.

Oh yeah, I also found this:

http://www.jr.com/polk-audio/pe/POK_R150/

Well, here's the down and dirty on the Insignias: http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=insignia.html

For the original $50 or the current $75, they're a defensible buy. As you can see from my measurements, the lower treble, upper midrange kind of sucks. But that's true of a lot of speakers in the price category, including some Polk towers. My crossover mod will turn them into very decent speakers, but that's more work than most people would consider unless they really get off on soldering . for a starter HT, you could do much worse.

The allroom system from audio pro would be a good choice here. I seem to be recommending it to everyone sub $500 budget. Its 5.1

The Insignia's have gotten decent reviews at their price point
Here are some speakers that I see a lot of Recommendations for and a whole 5.1 can be had for under $200 with free shipping. I don't have any personal experience with them, but they don't look bad for how inexpensive they are. Maybe not as cool looking as the Insignia's, but that is not the point here ;)

http://www.thespeakercompany.com/store/speaker/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.11218200

For the price the insignias cannot be beat....period. $70-$80per pair. Find a speaker for less than $100 per pair or maybe even $100 per speaker that can compete with the insignias. I started out with a 2 pair of sigs and they sounded pretty good for the price. Some of the guys on this board equate better sound with money which isn't always the case. Sure I have since upgraded but it wasn't b/c the insignias didn't sound good. For the price they sound great. If you cannot get the polks from frys the insignias are a pretty good option.

Get a kdl52z4100 or w4100 instead. They're equivalent to the xbr or better, but they also cost less. Your friend can use the extra money he saves on the speakers.

People love to rag on the Insignia B2111, but I love them for what they are. I have them as my rear speakers in a 5.1 system and they deliver great sound with surprising bass. I just got some JBL L830 on ebay for $139 that are substantially better. I am running the JBL l830 as mains with the Insignias as rear surrounds. For rear speakers, I can not complain.

I wonder how the Insignia's would fair against the Polk R150's. I bought the R150's for $49.99 a pair, and while I don't expect the world out of them, they seem decent enough (they are surrounds in my system but I do listen to "all channel stereo" sometimes).

I have a friend who has the Polk R150's for surround and I though the Insignias sounded a lot better. The Insignias had a deeper sound to them with better bass. The R150's sounded thin to me. Some have insulted the interior of the Insignias to have even better sound. I have not modified mine because I think they sound great.

While the Insignias would ok for the short term more than likely he will soon be looking to upgrade. This means he's going to end wasting 200$ as there is nothing timber matched to upgrade to. My suggestion would be to find a pair of fronts for around 200 that you would then be able to move back to use as your surrounds once more money becomes available.
Here are a few suggestions that could be had for 200 or less for fron pair and have reasonable upgrade path:
Infinity Beta 10
Behringer 2030P
Infinity Primus p162
Polk monitor 50 (frys)
polk r50 (frys)
EMP on walls (audioholics.com)
The speaker company has some good inexpensive solutions. They also have some floorstanders coming out this summer that have some amazing looking specs for the price.

Thank you all so much for your replies...

It seems as if we have a few other choices to look at...

Although just a note, we don't have to worry about matching, the whole set is likely to get ditched eventually. We were going to go with an axion set (QS 4 rears, M22 fronts), but as I said its not going to happen for a while.

As far as getting a cheaper tv, that is not going to be an option (its already arrived).

I appreciate the responses, and we are going to mull over our choices here and try to audition a few of these.. Thanks again!

Well, here's the down and dirty on the Insignias: http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=insignia.html

For the original $50 or the current $75, they're a defensible buy. As you can see from my measurements, the lower treble, upper midrange kind of sucks. But that's true of a lot of speakers in the price category, including some Polk towers. My crossover mod will turn them into very decent speakers, but that's more work than most people would consider unless they really get off on soldering . for a starter HT, you could do much worse.

Your mod requires parts that cost about $35 after shipping. If you add that to the cost of the speakers, you end up with a total cost close to a hundred bucks. Do you still think it's a good buy in that price range?

I already own a pair (actually, two), so I am only asking out of curiosity. By the way, I'm not sure that Madisound still carries the required parts - can you get them elsewhere?

My suggestion is to skip surround for now and just get a single pair of speakers instead. For $200, you can get vastly better sound (Alesis Monitor Ones, for example.) I would choose decent 2.0 over bad 5.1 any day of the week.

Your mod requires parts that cost about $35 after shipping. If you add that to the cost of the speakers, you end up with a total cost close to a hundred bucks. Do you still think it's a good buy in that price range?

I already own a pair (actually, two), so I am only asking out of curiosity. By the way, I'm not sure that Madisound still carries the required parts - can you get them elsewhere?

I think the mod made sense back when the price was lower and you could get a printed circuit board from me. But if you have to build the boards with your own layout, it's a lot of work. You will end up with a really good pair of $100 speakers (probably a little more now--copper has gone up), but the project is for enthusiasts only. As for parts, there's nothing unusual about them--Madisound or just about anyone else should have them.