I have a different recommendation. Surrounds don't really do that much in a home theater, and I would just go with some small, cheap, efficient speakers. After all, they are rarely asked to do more than ambient noises like rainfall or traffic. Occasionally they will be tasked with more, but not usually. I would go for something inexpensive from
The Speaker Company. Either the bookshelfs or the dipolar surrounds, either way, you would be spending $170 max for speakers, including shipping. They will do just as good a job as speakers many times their price, especially considering the kind of programming there is for surrounds. And don't worry about them getting loud, their sensitivity rating is fairly high.
Another thing I would add is in a room like yours, it is senseless to go a full 7.1 channels of sound. That really only ever benefit large rooms. Also consider no movies have 7.1 soundtracks! They are all 5.1, the extra tracks are kind of 'made up' by the AVR. There is no true recorded material there. All you will be doing by adding the extra surrounds is taxing your receiver more and wasting time and money by placing and wiring them. Save your money and use it for a center channel or subwoofers- it will actually make a difference there.
If you buy inexpensive surrounds, this should leave you over 1300 for subs, which really is where you will want it. You can get some slammin' bass for that amount. Check out the
Epik Dynasty, which is a 600w 18" ported beast. That will rock your entire room so hard. It is one of the best home theater subwoofers for the money. It will destroy your house and collapse your lungs. Epik's other subs are excellent too, check them out if you don't want to press the upper limit of your budget.
There is the
Elemental Designs A7-350. This colossal 215 lb monster would also shake your foundations. If you have the room for something like this, I don't know how you could do much better, although I don't know how it compares to the Dynasty. Either one will leave you bruised and beaten but begging for more.
There is also the SVS PB12 plus. I can not link to the site right now because there seem to be something wrong with it.
Here is a review. This would also be a terrific subwoofer. I think it might not quite have the performance of the above two, however it is easier on the eyes and still has massive performance.
If you were to get only one subwoofer, I would make it one of the above three. However you might also consider using dual subs, there are many advantages of using two subs over one, do a google search on that and you will see what I mean. For two subs, here are a few recommendations:
Two
HSU Research VTF3s. There is a great sale on now for the VTF3s, those are extremely capable subs, especially for the money. Two would make for a very formidable bass system. This is one of the best buys in subs right now, in my opinion.
Two SVS PB12s. I can't link to these, sorry, but they would also be very good, and a little less expensive. For some reason my browser is telling me the SVS site is malicious!? Perhaps they were hacked. This will be fixed soon I am sure.
The
Outlaw Audio LFM-1 EX, this is a lot like the VTF3.3, not surprising since they were designed by the same guy.
All of the subs I recommended are Internet direct companies, they will give you twice the performance of ordinary retail subs, but for half the money. Just compare their frequency response charts to any similarly priced sub at any electronics store around you. In fact, I would be surprised if you found any retail subwoofer around you that could match the performance of the Dynasty or the A7-350 at
any price, let alone their own.
