Yep, such tiny satellites with their 3 inch "woofers" don't always treat the music well. And to me, similar small models even ones from companies like Klipsch and Boston Acoustics (I own Bostons myself) - simply because of the laws of physics - just plain cannot reproduce music properly, subwoofer or no subwoofer.
Depending on your own priorities, IMO I would either:
1) start haunting garage sales/resale shops/etc for speakers, but speakers with
at least a 5" woofer. For me, 6.5" is the minimum to match well with a sub crossed over at the standard 80Hz.
Used speakers in general are usually very cheap (receivers and CD players too), because many people are tossing them in favor of one of those plastic iPod all-in-one docking gizmos.
And you can use speakers now considered monsters by many younger people i.e. old-skool floorstanders with 10" and larger woofers. You wouldn't believe the crazy deals I've seen out there because so many people think technology has passed these models by & they "can't" sound as good as a new speaker. Tell that to the guys at AudioKarma.org!!
2)
To save even more money, use a 4.0 configuration.
To generate the surround soundfield, all you actually need are the front mains & the 2 rear channels. The center and the sub are only *enhancements* to that soundfield (and a sub
can definitely make a big difference but isn't completely necessary as long as your front mains are large enough, since after reprogramming the receiver, they will be responsible for reproducing the sub's bass).
FYI: if you want something new, four of these entry-level speakers ought to make a listenable* basic system for many rooms:
Pioneer 3-way bookshelfs with 8" woofer PartsExpress, a company I've dealt with several times with no problems, sells them for only
$80 a pair --> "big" speakers like these aren't very marketable anymore.
I own the predecessors to these Pioneers and they are bit on the bright side but nothing my receiver's treble knob can't tame; and their bass output is surprising for such a low-priced speaker (Pioneer builds all their own drivers, so no surprise about the price/performance ratio).
There's cheap AND good sounding gear out there & special ways to set it up to maximise its potential, together resulting in a surprisingly good sounding system - you just have to dig around harder for that gear & do some extra research on its set up.
* listenable: in say, a 16ft X 20ft room (hmmm
) their overall sound should sound full/rich and reach high sound levels, but low bass in extreme action movies and hip-hop/pop music won't shake the walls.
