I'm very happy with a denon receiver/mirage nanosat setup.
www.accessories4less.comfor the denon. Although you can find really good deals occasionally at other places too, like
http://www.electronics-expo.comor
www.vanns.com. Just be patient and keep an eye out. Getting a good price on electronics is definitely a waiting game. I got one of my denons for a great price from Crutchfield of all places.
A4L is an official refurb dealer, but they're better than other refurb places like Dakmart because they negotiated a full denon factory warranty on their refurbs. The magic is in the Audyssey room correction tech. It's awesome and makes any speaker setup sound like a million bucks. Make sure the receiver you buy has at least Audyssey MultEQ, and preferably Audyssey MultEQ XT. Don't be fooled by other room correction tech, like that found in Yamaha stuff. Audyssey is the real deal. You can find it on Marantz and Onkyo as well.
I'm so in love with these little mirage speakers that I have two sets, one in the den and one for the computer here. I bought a full 5.1 set of those polks at newegg btw and vastly prefer the mirages. Your mileage may vary.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZpN5Lqb...er-System.html
You can find them cheaper than that if you're patient. I'm even impressed with the bundled sub. I was planning on selling it and replacing, but it is great, agile, smooth. Anyway, love the nanosats. This setup will blow any typical htib away (probably any htib period). Just keep in mind Audyssey is the key. Unless you've spent a lot of time and money treating your room, Audyssey will make a bigger difference in the sound than what sort of speaker you buy. Seriously.
http://www.audyssey.com/audio-technology/multeq/tourfor an explanation of what exactly it does.
edit: just wanted to point out that Audyssey 2EQ doesn't cut it. It doesn't include bass management, one of the major components. You will see that on some of the lower end receivers. MultEQ or higher only.