I was just reading HokieTim's thread and my room size and needs are almost the same as his, but I figured I shouldn't hijack his thread.  Anyways I am new to the site, have been researching extensively online for the past few weeks and this site is great, love the forums.  What I am looking to do is set up my first 5.1 system.  I have two room options for the location of this system (more on that in a sec), and its use would be for about a 60/40 split between movies/music.  I had originally started out hoping to audition PSB speakers, mainly the Alpha and Image lines.  However, the only PSB dealer within 40 miles of me who actually had Alphas or Images on the floor to audition was completely clueless, and I was only able to briefly sample some Image B15 monitors.  Frustration with the limited expertise of these dealers combined with the fact that I don't really want to take the time to drive up to 40 miles to sample their speakers has led me to Aperion.  For someone in my situation with limited knowledgable dealers nearby and limited inventory to audition, Aperion's 30-day in home trial deal seems too good to pass up.

My first decision has to do with which room to put the speakers in.  I have the main upstairs living room, which is about 14'(width)x12'(depth) (and opens up to a dining room on one side), and a small downstairs den, which is about 12'(width)x9.5'(depth) (and also opens up a little bit on one side).   The main living room will be the first place the system goes, but fears of the system possibly being too loud and disturbing to our upstairs neighbor (I really like to crank my tunes and often like to listen late into the night) is making me want to keep the smaller basement den as a reserve location (it is almost 100% isolated from the neighbors). 

Now, I have decided already that my rears will be 4Bs and the sub will be the Bravus 8D.  Also the fronts must be towers, for the wider range when listening to two-channel music.  I am torn between the 4T/4C and the 5T/5C combo up front, and would even be open to a 5T/4C combo, but I am not sure how that would work, and if the fronts/centers all need to be from the same class to avoid one drowning out the other.  By the way, I am planning on driving everything with an Onkyo 706.  So what do you guys think?  Here are some of the questions I am looking to answer...

-Is the 5T/5C/Onkyo 706 combo going to be overkill in either of these room sizes?

-Are the 4Ts tall enough to properly disperse the mid and high frequencies?

-Can I easily mix and match towers and centers from the 4 and 5 classes (i.e. 4T w/ 5C or 5T w/ 4C) without any issues?

Budget-wise I am looking to spend not much more than $2000 on the entire system.  I have found a great deal on an Onkyo 706 at a different site that would put me in at just under $2k if I bought the Intimus 4D hybrid system, and obviously over $2k by a few hundred if I chose to go with the 5T/5Cs.  I would prefer to save money, but would also like to avoid buying too small and having to upgrade in a few years.  I want these speakers to last me a long time.

Thanks in advance for all you input, and hope to be setting up my ideal system in a few weeks.

We also don't work on weekends, but now that Monday is upon us I'll be happy to help you out, so welcome to the forum!

Well if you go with that smaller room, 12'X9.5', then the 4Ts should be plenty for your fronts and they will have no trouble filling up the other room either.  But in that slightly bigger room I don't think the 5Ts would be overkill.  However you won't notice a huge difference between the two when watching movies.  It's when you are listening to music that the fuller mids that the 5T has to offer will be a larger benefit.  So if you place them in the larger room and better performance for music is worth the upgrade then I would go for it.   As for as the height question, yes the 4Ts have plenty of dispersion to work well in rooms up to 15'X20' or so. 

As for the centers, I typically use how far you are sitting from the screen to guide my decision and yes you can use the 4C with the 5Ts and the 5C with the 4Ts with no problems as they are timbre matched.  So if you are sitting closer than 10 feet away, which is sounds like you likely will be the 4C does a great job.  If you are sitting more in the 10-12 feet range then that's when the 5C's increased projection and clarity start to be a big benefit.  Now of course the 5C is a three way speaker compared to the 4C which is a two way, so even at closer distances you can still hear the difference and some folks still go for the 5C in that situation. 

The 706 is a great choice of receiver for what you are trying to do, and I don't think it will be either too much or too little.

I think that covers all of your questions, but please let me know if you have any others or if I missed anything.

Nice screen name by the way, been you to have any spike? 
 

Glad you appreciate the screen name Jason, I am hoping this system will help me set the gear shift to the high gear of my soul, so I can run run run run....