@cat where do you live? Country will be enough and for the reason to see what's available. What do you want to achieve (SPL, bass extension, room size, listening distance, sources)? For how much money and on how long path?
Going separate will always cost more.
Budget: while I don't have a fixed budget, my initial spending limit is $200-$300 (not including the sub).
Room size: living room is approximately 192 square feet.
Setup: I'm open to both active and passive setups, depending on which offers the best performance and availability within my budget.
Future expansion: I'm not gonna mess up with the setup at all except for adding a subwoofer later.
Listening preferences: My primary focus is on bass, especially sub-bass, for movies and bass-heavy hip-hop.
Listening distance: around 8 ft from speakers
Source: My audio source is solely my tv (optical, rca, hdmi, bluetooth). I don't own any audiophile hardware like DACs, turntables etc. and I don't plan on getting any in the future.