kcallile,
Thanks for the offer. But I sure hope I have already decided, ordered and have gotten (or awaiting factory outlet) speakers by then.

Dave,

I'll jump in here just to reiterate my point I made over at AVS.... I'm not sure going 7.1 with the rears 16' away in a kitchen is the best idea. You won't loose much by going with 5.1.

Also, you are still hung up on the watts thing... Here is a neat calculator to show SPL from various watts/distances. Just plug in the specs from your amp, the speakers, and your room. According to some quick entries, you will be able to get over 100DB (way above reference) using the M60's with your AVR.

http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

PS - Be sure to add to the watts entry and recalculate to see the effect....

Dave I'm in south Florida and will be home during the early afternoons all week if you want to stop by for a listen?

.

Rick,
Though I appreciate the offer, I can only travel a 1+ hour drive. The five hour flight from Calif. is a bit of a stretch for me.

Dave I thought so, I just wanted to let you know that we Floridians try our darnedest to be hospitable as well.

Rick I appreciate your 'hospitableness'. In Florida does 'hospitableness' include free air fair (and maybe even a per diem)!

Dave you shouldn't worry about having the fronts dominate. Your receiver should have the ability to individually adjust the speakers, giving you the ability to turn the fronts down or the rears up to compensate and balance the levels of all speakers, which is best to do anyhow

I claim tech ignorance on this, but are you sure that calc is right in real world terms. It basically says 20 watts reaches 104 dB. . . I'd like to see that if we are talking about real musical notes from 20 to 20. I know the whole "power doesn't matter" thing is a well settled debate here, but 20 v. 250 yields little change with 93 db speakers. If this is right, you could power an ep800 with a 20 watt amp, yet all compaines are pushing well over 500???
I don't know, sounds fishy.

Dewd,
Thanks for the calculator. I ran across it a few days ago and forgot to back and 'use it'. ;o)
That said, I do not understand what these terms translate too:
1) dB gain from amplifier?
(going from 90wpc to 130wpc only raises this from 19.5 to 21.1dB)

2) dB Loss due to dispersion (distance)?
(Using 12' dist. this remains constant at -11.3dB)

3) dB Gain from sonic reinforcement (multi speakers)?
(constant at 8.5dB)

I get your point on the Sound Pressure Level changing from 109.7db @ 90wpc to 111.3dB @ 130dB. I assume this means my 90 wpc amp has headroom above what I might listen to a loud action movie at.

In their calculator, all the above is based on avg 8ohm imped. The other power hang up ;o) I have had was that my 1909 could not handle the 4ohm M80's. The 1909's specs read:
6 - 16 ohms
90 wpc (8ohms, 20Hz-20kHz, with .08%THD)
120 wpc (6ohms, 1kHz with .7%THD)
I'm not sure but I think these specs say THD increases almost 9 fold when dropping to just 6ohms. I assume distortion increase would even much worse if the 1909 saw a 4ohm load, not to mention a 4 ohm load being detrimental to the 1909. Do I have this correct.
tks

I would never pass up a chance to meet the Rickster.