Quote Originally Posted by christina
Thank you so much. The problem is that the Polks that I have are only 40 watts. The receiver will blow them if I turn it to 2. That's why I think I need the floor standing speakers, which would be around 200w per. I am seriously considering either Fluance or Yamaha, both having rated as 5 star across the board on this website (I can't remember the models). I could then use a polk as a center, or use an old sony center speaker and put speakers in it from some Bose 901s that I have hanging around. What do you think? Thanks again!!

Christina
Keep in mind that your receiver will rarely if ever pump 40 watts out into each channel. Most speakers will play to very loud levels with less than one watt. (the sensitivity rating measures the output at 1 meter with 1 watt of signal input -- most speakers have a sensitivity of 85 db or more)

The power handling capability is not really an issue with most higher quality speakers. From what you're now describing, it seems that you have more of a prepackaged Polk system consisting of smaller satellite units. Those types of speakers will typically not extend very low. That's very different from larger bookshelf speakers, which will usually cover the entire frequency range down to about 50-60 Hz. With those types of speakers plus a subwoofer, you can cover same amount of the frequency range as a good floorstanding speaker will.

With a $300 budget, you should forget about floorstanding speakers. The ones in that price range that I've heard generally sound mediocre to gawdawful. You can get a much higher level of quality at $300 by going with a pair of good bookshelf speakers.

In general, you don't want to do too much mixing up between speaker brands. You want to match the tonal characteristics between the main, center, and surround speakers as closely as possible. A Bose 901 will sound VERY different from your current Polk speakers, and that combination will not create a very coherent surround effect. Ideally, you want the soundfield to blend together seamlessly all the way around, and that won't happen if you use mismatched speakers.

In the short-term, you should just familiarize yourself with the receiver, and start experimenting with different alignments and setups. A smart investment in the short-term would be to get yourself a SPL meter at Radio Shack and properly calibrate your system. And in the meantime, do some listenings and start forming your preferences around whatever budget you set. Home theater is more of a process than something that you plop into your room and forget about.