Receiver and speaker question

[Roaddogg]

Hello I'm a first time poster so bear with me...

My dilemma is I have a budget, 4 kids and 2 things that I want to accomplish.

Picture this...my living room is directly above the finished portion of my basement (both are about 26x16) . I envision putting a receiver in the basement where it will serve as a hometheater base, and then run some cable through the ceiling/floor to power some nice floor speakers in what my kids call the "fancy room".

Since the basement ortion is for the kids I'd like to save $ there and just get a cheap home theater speaker setup out of a box (don't hate me), but I'm inclined to spend more for the living room which has wood floors and no carpet. Now, I just started trolling this site a few weeks ago, but it seems that Polk, Axiom, etc. seem to be highly regarded and Fluance seems very reasonably priced, but I get lost in the details/differences ...If music tastes matter in the speaker discussion then I'm into Paul Weller, Prog Rock, Jazz, Classical guitar, etc

I'd like to keep the price of these speakers at under $600 if possible...any suggestions on both he receiver and the floor speakers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

[PAT.P]

You should look also for Athena,Paradigm,Energy .For Energy there the ACT series.Energy also brought their newer C series out .Bought a pair of C-50 (small bookself ) for my 8 year old son Ht system and they sound great.

[calegrant]

Paradigms probably for you. They offer excellent quality at that price level and they look good. Most other speakers will be out of place in your "fancy" room. Plus they provide sound which shines with those types of music.

[Roaddogg]

Thanks, it turns out there is a dealer with paradigms not to far from my house. Does anybody have any advice between Paradigm Phantoms or the Monitor 7's besides price?

I'm glad I found this site. love reading and learning about this stuff, but I'm somewhat crestfallen because I bought Bose Accustimass 10's 6 years ago...rookie mistake, that won't happen again