Take Classic 5.1 upgrade

What kind of budget are you thinking about? For instance, if you have $900 to spend right now, I'd suggest getting the Veritas V6.2s and matching center to start. Great deal on those Energy towers.

Unfortunately, it's a terrible idea to think that one can incrementally upgrade, a bit at a time. Unless one has a solid plan of attack which they plan on completing, one is asking for incremental trouble.

My recommendation would be, if you're going upgrade, pick a manufacture and stick with their system to completion. I'm a big Klipsch fanboy but they might not suit your budget. Many here are SHO-10 fans and they may better suit your budget as it's a system you can incrementally grow with.

To me, the most important speaker in the system is the center channel and the next most important speaker is a "PAIR" of subwoofers and then build from there. I don't know if the above helps give you guidance or not but I hope it does and good luck.

I would suggest that you get some much better speakers for the front three; that is where the sound quality is mainly determined for the system. Your current front speakers are totally inadequate, and that is your main problem. Step one should be to spend the $400 you have now to accomplish that.

Floorstanding speakers are not a cost-efficient way to go for a home theater system on a budget like yours, because floorstanding speakers mainly just give you a slight increase in bass for almost double the price (with comparable sound quality).

A good set of bookshelf / monitor speakers will go down below 60 Hz and the subwoofer can take over at 60 Hz and below.

I suggest that you get a pair of Boston Acoustics Classic CS26 speakers ($150 each), which are rated to go down to 52 Hz, and a BA Classic CS225C center speaker ($108 now at Amazon). That is the best way I know of for you to spend $400.

Those three speakers will transform your system; better quality sound, more bass, and more audio power. You can use the best 2 speakers you have now for the rear/surrounds

When you have another $300-400 to spend, then you can buy a good subwoofer and make another major step up.

The Klipsch RW12D is one of the best that is reasonably priced.
Edited by commsysman - 8/8/12 at 2:16pm

Because you are upgrading from smaller satellite speakers to more full range speakers with larger drivers, however you start, the front sound stage will be challenged integrating in one/some of the Energy Take Classics. If it were me, I would buy a pair of L/R speakers first. You can either run them with the Take center, or run them in "phantom center" mode (without a center), whichever sounds better. Then buy the matching center later.

If you want to go with towers, you could get the Polk Monitor60s from Newegg for $149 ea. Then get the CS2 when you can.

If you feel you might be able to put more investment into your HT setup later on, you could also begin with maybe a little higher speaker line bookshelves for the front, with the eventual plan of buying towers at the end of your building process and moving the bookshelves to the rear.

eracer001,

Where are you located? You might want to try your local craigslist ads for used speakers too.

Look at the cinema line from Elemental Designs. There are a pair for sale in the classifieds in your price range with upgraded compression driver. 93 db sensitivity. Easy to drive and will fill a big space. Add the center and any surrounds u want and u will have a great system

I'd be cautious about buying anything from ED, even used. It seems like the company is in it's death throes, so future service or availability of matching centers and surrounds is likely to be problematic.