Request HT advice

[Nick V]

A few questions about my makeshift media/home theater room.
1) Are Revel M16s a good choice for home theater Mains in a 1700 cubic foot sealed room with a close seated position?
2)Will one or two sealed 18” Ultimax (picking a flat pack) be over kill for the space or the Revel bookshelf speakers?
My goal is a 5.2.4 Home theater. The Revel M16s would start out as my mains until a find towers and move them to the rear. My Current room is 11’ x 20’ x 8’, with the tv on the 11’ wall, and seated position (8’ wide) is less than 10’ from it.
Question 1 is driven by two articles I read today on Audioholics: Narrow vs wide dispersion and the review of the M16 itself. Admittedly, I don’t fully understand the first article. I took it to mean that Wide dispersion is good at a close seated position for music, but not ideal in a multi-channel/home theater setting; early reflections may be an issue.
Feel free to offer speaker suggestion as I’m also looking at the Monolith THX-365t series, but my current receiver (Sony STR-DN1080 - plan to replace after acquiring subwoofers) may not support even two. Additionally, I’m not a fan of upfiring ATMOS; one of the reasons I returned a pair of Klipsch R-625FAs. Current budget for mains is $1000 a pair, subs $800 each.
thanks in advance.

 

[shadyJ]

To answer your question in order:
1) The Revels would be pretty good in a small room like that and close listening distance. I doubt you would be able to push them very hard in that scenario.

2)As for the Ultimax's, whether they would be overkill depends on how loud you want to run the system. I don't think they would be overkill They will get plenty loud and should have a good amount of headroom for you. They aren't pure output monsters though. Two would get loud but not insanely loud.

I wouldn't worry too much about wide vs narrow dispersion. Narrow might have an advantage in a surround sound system with lots of acoustic absorption. They can both sound good. I am sure you would be happy with either the Revels or the Monolith THX speakers.