Advice / tower speakers
 

I have a 400 watt Yamaha receiver currently hooked up to a basic center-channel speaker and some 20ish-year-old Pioneer speakers (as front speakers). I'm looking to replace the front speakers with new towers. I live in a small garage apartment with hardwood floors so sound tends to reverberate nicely through the room, which is roughly 15' x 22'.
My budget is fairly limited, therefore the really nice stuff isn't an option. I did find a pair of 3-way Sony towers yesterday at Best Buy that were $160 for the pair. Each had an 8" sub along with a mid and a tweeter. Sounded pretty full, sexy to me. Since I can't afford to buy a sub right now can anyone let me know if these speakers would be decent for what I need?

Even though price is an issue, I wouldn't recommend Sony speakers. Best Buy carries JBL as well. Look at the lower priced stuff there...see what they've got. I've got JBL's all around in my living room...sounds great.

used speakers can be excellent value.

JBL's are good. They are made by the Harman group which also owns Harman-Kardon and Infinity.

harman/kardon and Infinity aren't much to write home about anymore. 10 years ago maybe, but now they aren't all that great.

I don't know if ubid.com sells Klipsch speakers anymore, but I got a great deal on some discontinued KG3.5 towers there a few years ago. Some people think the horn tweeters sound a little too shrill, but I love the sound personally. Piano music sounds especially impressive.

The Sony speakers I've heard were quite harsh, shrill, and muddy. Same with Yamaha. They both need to stick to electronics.

Circuit City sells Polk Audio speakers. I'm not sure how their home speakers are (I've heard good things though) but I have them in my car and I'm happy with them.

For your budget, I would suggest a nice set of Polk's. Not the best, nor the worst. But they do make some semi-clean sounding speakers. Good Luck!

Thanks for the input, everyone.

After looking around a bit I think my best option will be to add a sub to my existing system rather than trying to get the low-end performance out of tower speakers and be disappointed. I can still add some fancy-ass towers on later.. and probably will >:)