Building a theater need speaker help

You want to get 7 speakers and a subwoofer for $700? That's a pretty tall order. It would be better to get less speakers, but better quality. You might want to consider starting with 3.1 or 5.1 and then upgrading when funds become available. What size is your room?

There are some kit speakers out there that are phenomenal for a very low price. How are you at building Legos? Because these kits just come as a flat pack so all you have to do is assemble, glue and install the drivers. Well, the crossover can be a bit tricky, but you can get them pre-assembled for a price. But if you are limited to $700 including the sub that's an awfully tall order. You could do 5 of these for $625 and save up for a sub. These will keep up with or outdo anything costing upwards of $500 each!

http://www.diysoundgroup.com/waveguide-speaker-kits/karma-series-kits/karma8-kit.html

For a large room like that, your priority had better be for some relatively large front speakers with decent sound quality.

I suggest that you consider the KEF iQ70 speakers, which are less than half or their former price now at KEF Direct ($600 per pair). If you do not want floorstanding speakers, you could go with the KEF Q300 for about the same price.

Those are very good to build your system around.

For a center speaker, the KEF C6LCR speaker is $269.

You should get a decent 12-inch subwoofer with as much power as possible.

The Klipsch RW12D is good, and the SUB12-HG is also fairly good. (around $300-400).

That will give you a good 3.1 system, which is where 95% of your sound comes from.

Satellite speakers can be had for much lower prices later; they are relatively non-critical.

Even if your ceiling height is only 8 feet that nets you around 4000 cubic feet of total volume, which is well beyond satellite territory. Anything that small will pretty much be swallowed up by the room.

Along with the KEF's another possible system would consist of the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers; the SP-C22 center, SP-FS52 for the front left and right, and then a pair of SP-BS22 for surrounds. Add the PowerSound XV15 subwoofer and you would have a good setup that fits in your budget.

+1^

The PSA XS15 or XV15 would both be good.