I've decided to wire for 7.1 and try out a pair of 7yr old Energy bookshelves as the rears, which means I'll be spending the budget on a 5.1 system.
My new question is... would the M22 HT package (Epic Grand Master) with the ep500 be sufficient? And when I upgrade to M60's would the M22 be too large if I moved them to the rears?
btw... just wanted to say thanks for all the suggestions and opinions.
Excellent course of action to go 5.1 and use the old speakers as rears. Rear speakers are probably the lest important next to the subwoofer to have matching.
IMO the Epic Grand Master +EP500 will work very good in your room. I’ve tried it in mine and found that sitting 12 feet away from the mains it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between the M22s +EP500 and the M80s +EP500 unless doing a direct A/B comparison or playing very very loud.
Also the M22s will do fine as rear speakers. I used mine there for some time before deciding that I preferred QS8s because I only sit 5 feet away from them and find the closer I sit to the rear speakers the more I prefer multi-polar speakers like the QS8s over direct radiating speakers like the M22s. And no the M22s will not be overkill as rear speakers.
