Ian S wrote:

That's kind of the boat I'm in too. I think the typical advice is to get
full range front speakers assuming your music sources are CD, turntable or
cassette played back in normal stereo. These will tend to be large and will
have a lower SAF (Spousal Approval Factor) than an entire system of small
satellites.

This is rubbish. Often, the stands are even *more* ugly than
a nice, thin tower. http://www.tannoy.com/Eyris2 Note the
beautiful real wood veneer and a thin profile. I've found
that the mounts/stands for most speakers are often uglier than
a good small tower or wall-mounted surround.

Show this to your spouse. Then, as most women have better
hearing than men by middle-age, let her hear them Tannoy
stopped making their Revolution, which is a shame, but they
also are great sounding without being a behemoth.

I went the satellite route myself and am happy with that but you
may want to go with full range fronts. When I say full range, I don't mean
they have to have huge woofer elements to get down to 30 Hz or below -
that's what your sub will be for. A lot of front speakers are in a slim
tower design which eliminates the need for stands of any kind - it's best to
have mid and high range drivers at the same height as your ears while
listening.

35-40hz is the optimal range, as it will go down to 30hz, though at
less db. This gives it some overlap with the subwoofer, so the
sub isn't doing it all, but instead, is providing reinforcement
as it should be. The difference between subwoofer reinforcement
and it taking over everything at the low-end is quite audible.