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Voted the first option but I'm not certain my stand mounted speakers qualify as either "satellite" or "compact". Perhaps an additional category would have been good in that option ("larger stand mount" along with "or compact satellite"). Just a thought.

In the spirit of the question asked, I should probably say I chose stand mount speakers in order to decouple the lowest frequencies from the mains. I fully subscribe to the POV that imaging and bass response almost never happen at their best in the same spot in a given room. I prefer to set up the mains for best imaging and the sub(s) for best bass response. Tower or stand mount, I would do the same. I also chose stand mounts because, at any given price point, the stand mount, compared to the tower, is almost always going to be one (if not more) tier above in quality. At least that was my experience when shopping for my speakers 11 years ago (time flies). I have since upgraded my subwoofer but am in no hurry whatsoever to get new speakers.

I have Tower Full Range with one Powered Subwoofer. Due to the wide living room, I can't mount the side surround speakers on the side walls. I have to use in ceiling surround speakers Klipsch KS7502 for side surround.

I have Def Tech XTR for LCR and in-ceiling for surround. Option for on-wall is missing.

I have Klipsch Cornwalls for mains and Klipsch Cornwall vertical for a center. Very old school.

I got the Epos Epic 2's when they cut the price, so I've got great "musical" speakers, and they pull their own weight when it comes to movie soundtracks.

At one time I had a costly 5.1 system, now I have the side mounted speakers that came with my plasma and I'm completely satisfied.

I chose the tower setup with separate subwoofer, although this is not exactly the case. I have been doing some DIY on the front channels. The missus was reluctant to use real towers when we got little ones, so we decided to build the speakers into a wall closet. But since I use high end speakers and a hypex powered dsp I have tuned my speakers as if they were tower speakers. Best of both worlds!

Voted sub/sat, but the SATs are large full range SATs...bass to mid 30s so yes the sub's help at higher SPLs and movie FX but for most music the SATs are quit full sounding. Dual sub's go to 18Hz.

Even though I love all aspects of home theater, I also have a love for all things stream lined and clutter free. Our home is relatively small (maybe around 1200Sqft)with no sort of bonus room to dedicate to a fully fleshed media setup. Our living room is probably 20x20 and it includes a 65" TV, a smaller sectional sofa, an audio tower that houses an AVR, Satellite box, Roku, a PS4 and a Wii U, plus an extremely overside computer desk (77"x33"). One can imagine how all that in such a small room would leave you wanting to reduce your foot print in any reasonable way.

So, in order to have all the things I want and still keep our home clutter free, I have gone with a full 7.2 speaker arrangement comprised of all in wall/in ceiling speakers (even the subs). I bought two subwoofer plate amps, (which is basically the amp built into the sub enclosure for a "powered" sub), built a small wooden enclosure to mount the plate amps into, ran an LFE output from the AVR (Pioneer Elite SC-63) to the LFE input on both sub plates, then ran the speaker wire from the plate amp to the "passive" subs in the walls. Does this sound as good? Probably not to the most discerning ear, but to me it sounds pretty darn good. Also, the 7 surround speakers sound surprisingly good. I bought all of my stuff from monoprice.com and I know that the true audiofiles on this site wouldn't be caught dead using such things. But, to appease my design choices for the home and still get the home theater experience I want, I made that sacrifice.