I'd definitely give them a good shot as hi-fi speakers. I love mine for giving an extra kick to movies but it's music where these set ups really shine - I reckon the classic 5.1 set up is better for watching whereas my understanding is there's often a loss of musical fidelity with those set ups.
If you do get them running as hifi, chuck some old Dire Straits on. For some reason their mastering seems to be a cut above almost everything else.