I don't know about a speaker that Artison make called the PLCR. I have played quite a bit with the Artison Portrait LCRs on plasma screens. Perhaps this is what you mean? They're pretty good and certainly a better more expansive sound than one would expect from speakers so close together. They have good resolution too and are nicely made with a quality feel to their cabinetry, even if it is plastic. Naturally, they don't go deep in the bass sinec they're quite small. You can get away without a sub provided you don't want deep bass. If you do want to go below the 80hz region you need a sub. I have matched them very successfully with lower end Velodyne subs such as the SPL800R.
Thanks, The PSLR are the portraits, I like how they look on a plasma, and they sound amazing for only two speakers. I am going to match them with a Martin Logan Abyss 12 inch sub.
Although they look like two speakers they are in fact 4 speakers, usually setup in a 3-way configuration to give you the left, centre and right. They also have rear firing tweeters which you can choose to switch on or off. These tweeters are there to enhance spaciousness by bouncing more high frequency information around the room, but you need to play around with it to see if you prefer them on or not.
I have no experience of the Martin Logan and it's probably a fine product, but have a close look at the equivalent Velodyne because theirs is currently the leader in subwoofer technology. The higher end Velodynes (the DD range) have a lot of very fancy DSP processing and yet maintain a musical and convincing result.
Thanks for the advice, I will try out the velodyne sub in my living room. Also the Artisons are so elegant to look at with the matching grilles. They maintain a continuos flat panel look and feel when mounted on the wall.