SVS speakrs and Denon Receiver

First, kudos for educating yourself before buying. Not all of us were that smart when we first started.

You're definitely correct to ditch the Bose in favor of better quality for the price. Your choices above are pretty strong. Though I've not heard those speakers, people speak highly of SVS. Ultimately, it will need to be your ears that decide.

Some other brands you may consider: Aperion (I'm biased...I love my Aperions), Emotiva, DefTech, Axiom.

The only possible issue I could see is that in your room size, being a larger room, your sub may not kick as hard as you like. Takes a lot of sub to move that much air, so you may want to add a second down the line. If the room is more of a "great room" that shares with something else (like the kitchen), and the "theater" part will only be a portion, you should be in pretty good shape.

Good luck in whatever you decide, and welcome.

Well...a couple things:

First, with any Aperion offering, you get a 30-day in-home trial, with free shipping both ways. So if you try something and don't like it, you just send it back to them. Also, Aperion has a 1-year trade-up program so you can exchange your speakers if you want to upgrade in the future (subs excluded, so buy the biggest one you want now).

I know that piecing together a system over time isn't as fun, but personally, that's the way I would go. Consider going 2.0, then adding a sub for 2.1, then center 3.1, then surrounds 5.1. You get better quality right away, and end up satisfying the upgrade bug by adding to your setup with equal quality, instead of buying a full 5.1 setup, and then replacing every speaker when you upgrade. Make sense? This applies mostly to brands OTHER than Aperion (because the trade-up program pretty much nulls that argument).

I wouldn't go 4-series up front in your size room. Those 4B's and 8A would get swallowed by your room. The SVS example is a better one for the same price, in terms of being able to fill up the room. But, if you went with my above suggestion to piece it together over time, here are some possible combinations:

2 x Verus Forte tower (If you like towers...$1000)
1 x SVS 12-inch sub ($600...I would definitely upgrade the sub to a 12 for your room)

A great 2.1 start for your $1600. Or:

2 x Verus Grand Bookshelves ($600)
1 x Verus Forte Center ($350)
1 x SVS Sub ($600)

A great 3.1 start for $1550. If you wanted to add towers down the line, you could move the bookshelves to the rear. Or add the wireless option for surrounds.

If you stay within the same brand, and even the same line (Verus, in the examples I gave above), you'll have no trouble with mismatched sounds. As long as the front three match as close as possible, you can get it to sound great. And the Audyssey on your receiver will help out on that front, too.

I would go Monoprice for wiring. Whether their normal, flat, in-wall...whatever...they have great options for not a lot of dough.

Down the road, you'll want to think about adding a rug and room acoustic treatments to help tame some of the wicked reflections your room will likely have.

Remember...this is only one guy's opinion. Try some stuff and let your ears decide. That's why I like recommending Aperion, as it's a risk-free way to give your ears another option to consider.

The problem with research is that you can't research how speakers sound without hearing them. At some point, you'll have to just pick something and see if you like it. Can't really help you, though, if you won't return things you don't like.

The omission of the wireless speakers was simply because I've never heard them, but more importantly, don't feel like surrounds should take up so much of your budget. $500 out of $1600 for surrounds is silly, in my opinion. I think they're a great choice if you use your current budget to build over time, and add them later as you build up your front three in quality.

I wouldn't say towers "rank" in any particular way as far as home theater goes. They do help fill up larger rooms, but in spite of my current setup, I'm actually a bigger fan of bookshelves with a great sub. Only get towers if that's your personal preference. A center is important for HT, yes, which is why you don't want a small one in your size of room, but as far as "overpowering" goes, Audyssey will compensate for that.

I have owned and auditioned many speakers and ended up buying the SVS SCS-01 speakers for my mains. Very happy with them. They are very well balanced (nice sound stage, play clean, are not fatiguing, etc. My room was smaller (approx 18x16), but was an open room to a much larger space (18x18) and I never had any issues getting the sound to play clean at higher levels. I did not detect any clipping or distortion (at least noticeable) in the 90+db range (which is pretty loud).

If you are not a high volume listener I would not worry to much about these speakers being able to play loud enough. How far away do you sit from your speakers?

There are lots of choices out there. But I felt SVS offered a great balance for the money and their customer service is awesome. That said we just moved and my new room is massive (32'x19') and I am looking at some other options (the room is being built but I am looking at something that plays at reference levels and packs more of a punch. I am going to do another speaker audition with the SVS speakers and may end up stepping up to the SVS towers or another brand.

I definitely recommend the biggest subwoofer you can buy. Or two

I would call SVS and ask them about the bipoles. I called them several times to discuss questions I had and they were very helpful.

If you have the ability to properly place the dipoles, they'd be a better effect for surrounds, yes.