Mac,
there's a certain city full of circuits thats has some decent prices on speakers. even though its not a competitor i'm not posting a link.
i have the onkyo surround sound system, used to be $400, now almost half that becuase its last years model. i'm very very happy with it, plenty loud for me and excellent during scenes like the beginning to saving private ryan. only drawback is the satellites arent as small as say Bose or JBL's.
using a harmon kardan AVR325 receiver, all the inputs and outputs you could ever need.