There was a lot of discussion about Fluance speakers being surprisingly cheap, yet very good for the money. Many people over at avsforum suggest these for low-buck HT setups.
Click here for Fluance thread. I looked at the RT50 polk speakers at CC and was very unimpressed. Here's some info (I just woke up and am bored) about speakers and stuff.
An important thing to note is that watts are hardly the measure of how good your speakers will sound:
1) If you double the watts you only get 3 more decibels (technically twice as loud)
2) 10 decibels is often described as "sounding" twice as loud
3) tube amps often used by audiophiles, and generally have very low power ratings
4) a 97db sensitive speaker with 100 watts will be the same volume as a 100db sensitive speaker with only 50 watts. or a 103 db sensitive speaker with only 25 watts. This is measured at 1 watt of power at 1 meter away from the speaker.
5) 130 decibels is considered 'pain' (i.e., you'll go deaf pretty quick so avoid this)
6) a 100 db sensitive speaker will technically play at 118db (that's loud) with only 64 watts.
In a twisted way, a higher power rating can be a determining factor in sound:
1) Higher power ratings generally mean that you won't be running the amp at it's fully capabilities. This means that there will likely be less THD at 50% power, compared to 100% power. Therefore, if your speakers need a lot of power to get to an appropriate volume (speaker sensitivity comes into play here), then a lower-powered amp will have more THD (run at 100%) compared to a higher-powered amp (run at 50%).
2) This of course, assumes that all else is equal (i.e., same brand/specs, just lower power).
Regarding the Fluance speakers and why they could be good at such a low price!:
1) Not many speaker brands actually manufacture their own speakers.
2) Specifications for speakers are sent to giant speaker manufacturers where the manufacturer can create a new speaker
3) sometimes the manufacturer has a speaker that they produce and a brand will 'buy it' and put their dust cap (the central 'dome') on the front of it. They may or may not 'buy' the exclusive rights to purchase this exact speaker.
4) Fluance is supposedly made from the manufacturer Goldsky.
ok, too much typing. Write back if you care to know anything else.