Agreed that was just awful . her repeated rebuttals of oh come on , oh come . on ! what a total idiot ! <| sep |> You need 5 , 6 , or 7 speakers to have full surround sound . If that is what you are after the first option is the one . Getting just the towers would be a more measured approach , it allows you to get the highest quality speakers for the $ 400 you have to spend then you would add speakers to your system as your budget recovered . Takes longer but you end up with a better set in the end . If you are just getting your feet wet get the Fluance option above . Take some time to learn about this , listen to other peoples setups as you can and figure out where to go from there . Many people get that Fluance set and are quite happy with it .