Speakers primarily for music?
 

I'm building a house right now and have planned a most excellent home theater in the basement--to be built in the next 2 years or so. But I'm also planning a surround system for the living room, the focus of which will be music. (This system will also provide my interim theater, till the basement is done.)

However, the long-term focus is strong, loud-and-clear music for a large room, and I want the speakers to remain low-profile. The room is prewired for speakers on the walls, near the ceiling. I need to find a good satellite/subwoofer speaker system that delivers impressive high-end music, with clear highs and tight lows and everything in between.

Is that possible without those ol' reliable large-profile speakers? Can you get adequate midrange out of a satellite system?

If so, what do you recommend I test?

KEF
B&W
NHT
Maggies (but probably not a low profile speaker)

You might do a search, this question gets asked a lot and the same players over and over are recommended.

IMHO, the answer is no.

I own both Magnepans as well as B&W speakers. There are some constants within the physics of sounds and motion despite what some marketing companies will tell you. depending on the size of the room you need adequate power driving good quality drivers capable of delivering an spl to fill the room. No sub/sat system that I am aware of can do this, utimately what happens is that when people start out being happy, they soon want more than the system can deliver and start to strain the speakers.

My advice remains the same, go looking at as many speakers you can, listen to the ones that fit your budget with music that you know and most importantly trust your own ears.

Good luck! ;)