Quote Originally Posted by Lexmark3200
....... You wanna take $200 and throw it in the ****ter, go ahead but you would be better off spending that cash elsewhere for a system like in good cables and interconnects.
You make me laugh, Lex...

Er what's the original question again.
OK, $1200 for speakers and sub. With that kind of money you can get more decent sound by getting separate bookshelf speakers + sub rather than getting a micro speaker package like Hsu Ventriloquist you mentioned. To give you idea, a quick calculation from Ascend website, you can get CBM 170 front & center, HTM 200 surround and Hsu VTF-2 for around $1200. Ok this is 5.1 system but I wouldn't really bother about 6.1 system. Off course you can get similar combo from other brands too. Good luck.