I gotta be honest and say I was surprised to read all the support for the Shimano compact. I've been looking into those as well, but forgot to mention it in my original post.

Question regarding front derailleurs: do you really HAVE to get a special FD when using some compact cranks? I mean, I've been wrenching my own bikes for 14 years and consider myself quite good at it. Is it really anything that some patience and anal-retentiveness for detail when adjusting the FD couldn't fix?