Speaker Compatibilty Help

My Setup:
Refinishing a basement. Have the frame up, no drywall yet. I'm looking to do a 5.1 system in the HT part of my basement. The theater will be 15' wide, 22' long and the ceilings will be 7'6". The room is mostly closed of, but not completely. If you are sitting looking at the screen in the front right there is a hallway up to the stairs with a door at the top. the last 8 feet on the back right is open to another room 8' x 20' orientated perpendicular to my HT.

What I need:
5.1 system that will be powered by my Denon 2113. My budget is $1,200 for the speakers and sub. Use will be 50%sports and tv, 30% movies, 20%music.

What I need from you:
Can you look at the following shortlist of setups I have come up with and comment if they are compatible with my reciever and room layout.

I have listened to some, but not all, of these systems and plan to do so before choosing. Can you comment if they are all in the same class of speakers. I am not neccessarily looking for preference of brand or dome vs ribbon vs horn, but just if they are of similar build quality and audio fidelity. I will develop my preference by listening to them.

Finally, can you just let me know if you think any of my centers are not a good match for my towers? I tried to match brands and lines, but am ignorant to timbre matching.

Short List

Refurbished Boston Acoustics.
(2) A360 towers
(1) A225 center
(2)A25 surrounds
(1) A250 powered sub
Cost:$900. Only concern is white towers and black everything else. If better than the rest I will do it. If all else is equal, might pick a matching set.

BIC Package
(2) PL67 towers
(1) PL26 center
(2) PL66 surrounds
(1) PL-200 powered sub
Cost $1175. Haven't listened to horn tweeters ever, so I would have to hear before buying.

Pioneers
(2) FS22 towers
(1) CS22 center
(2) BS22 surrounds
(1) HSU STF-1 powered sub
Cost $800. Seem like a great value. Quality on par with the others?

Polk
(2) Tsi300 towers
(1) CS10 center
(2) TSi200 surrounds
(1) HSU STF-1 powered sub
Cost $1150. Didnt like the sub that came with the package, so would have to buy piece by peice. Worth stepping up to the TSi400 and CS20 for another $150.

Thanks in advance with any advise you can lend.

Great point on the HSU got so caught up in the reviews I didn't realize it only went down to 30 hz. The reason I was gonna add a sub was because the towers only go down to 30 hz. The PL 200 goes down to 22 hz if I remember correctly. Is there a better sub in the $300 - $350 range? I know it's entry level budget at this point.

I appreciate the suggestion of skipping the sub for now and spending the money else where and adding as funds come available. I'll think about that too.

Follow up question. If I did the towers AND a sub, I would run the sub channel just to the sub and the FR/FL to the respective tower right? When I run the Aud XT calibration, will the subs in each tower be used effectively? I assume I would end up with directional imaging for the subs in the front, which could be cool if I put the powered sub in the back of the room. Would this arrangement work?

I've seen several people in a similar price range considering the Infinity Primus P363 and P163. Should I add them to my list to check out?

I went to BB last night to audition and they didn't have any of these exact speaker unfortunately. The guy said I should go Def Tech they will play nice with my receiver. I didn't see any in my price range. My question is, will that make a difference at my budget level? I could see it being noticeable at the high end, but since I'm middle of the road should I be targeting or avoiding brands because I have a Denon?

Thanks. I think ill def take you advice on the sub. For education purposes do you mind explaining why the 260 towers will sound better than the 360 towers for my application?

Awesome. Thanks. I just read a bunch of great yhings about it in other threads and Newegg has it for 299. That seems like a great price for it, right?

So I found a place that will let me audition the BIC speakers tonight and Im calling around on the Boston Acoustics. Living 30 min from Boston I thought it would be easy. Hopefully they'll have the 250 and 360. Then my ears can decide

I'm still trying to figure out why the cs260s are a better match than the 360s. Spec wise the only thing I can see is that the 250s are 2 way. Is the idea that since I will be adding a sub its better to have all the power committed to the high and mid rather than split to 3 drivers? IT seems like the mid driver is the one thats missing though?
Edited by jvh4 - 2/4/13 at 8:27am

So they didn't have BIC after all. The Boston Acoustics were only satellites, not the towers or bookshelves. So I just listened to everything I could. My favorites by far were the MartinLogans motion 40s. But we're obviously out of my price range. I also listened to some Def Tech 8060s and 8020s towers. Their bass sounded better but didn't have the same crisp vocals (especially on the blurays)I loved out of the Logan's. also listened to some aluminum dome Energy, but didn't like them as much. Sounded ok overall but didn't do anything better than the other two I mentioned. The B&W I listened to sounded like a warmer Def Tech to me.

The nice thing is I got to listen to them through my receiver. My take away is that I should really try to listen to some BIC cause I might like the horn tweeters based on the Logan's I like.

Does that make sense? Would any of those sound similar to the Boston Acoustics?

Thanks everyone for you input. I'm pretty close to making a decision.

Last question.

Will a particular system work better below reference volumes? I've read a ton about speaker sensitivity and distortion at high volume, but less about the effects of operating at low volume.

If I am often listening at lower volumes, but need the dialogue to be clear, will different systems work better under those conditions?

I found a guy locally who is selling gently used BIC pl76 5.1 set up, and he's going to let me listen to it tonight. If its the right set then I will have finally made a decision.

The only hiccup is he's giving me a much better price if I buy the whole thing vs only taking the 5 speakers. He has the H100 sub.

If it becomes an issue am I better off trying to unload it and get the Klipsch rw-12d as planned or do I add another H100 or even a Pl200 for a dual sub set up?

You are all a bunch of no-good, dirty, rotten scoundrels!! I bite my thumb at you all!!!!!

Haha. Who am I kidding. I love you guys. But I did notice that the guy who yells at posters for having the audacity to recommend white speakers, the guy who wins things on eBay then refuses to buy them (coincidentally he's the only guy who still calls people jerk-offs), and the flocks of people asking the same vague questions without giving any specifics to their environment or searching the forum for the answer 1st, all got more responses than me.

So, I thought I'd put down the honey and pick up the vinegar. Y'all [radio edit] best watch out!

Respect.