B W 804 for Home Theater

Assuming you like the basic Nautilus sound, you'll love the combination and it will suit you well. To get the HT slam you want, you'll definitely need a properly mated sub, but there's more to it than that. You want proper articulation so dialogue is clear, and the B&W's will certainly do an excellent job on that. You also want a musical sound since soundtracks are so predominant these days and, again, the B&W's will excel.

You didn't ask this question so feel free to ignore the comment, but if it were me, I'd think about spending more on the fronts (L/C/R) and save some on the rears unless surround music is going to be very important to you. Buying the 803's and a better sub and using some lower end B&W's for the surrounds would be how I'd spend the same amount of money. Just a thought. -Kirk

My HT set had B&W Nautilus 805s for L/R channels, the HTM-2 for the center channel and the ASW 4000 for LFE. This combination works very well for HT or audio. You get plenty of slam and crystal clear dialogue. Suffering from the "I've got to improve" bug, I recently replaced the 805s with 803s. What I gained was better definition in the upper bass and better sound staging. The 803s are also almost twice the price of 805s + stands. You might want to look closely at the CDM-9NTs. The speaker enclosures are not as solid or as visually pleasing as the Nautilus speakers, but the drivers are very similar to the 803s. They compare quite favorably to the 804s. I am using CDM-1NT for rear channels.

Actually, the standard stereo Design of these speakers (tweeter on top w/one midrange) lends themselves to small rooms for effectiveness with home theater!(assuming proper set-up..and I'll bet you have an easier time with the 804's in a small room!) Larger rooms tend to allow too much interaction with reflected sound with these for effective HT monitors! (In this respect, Diappolito condigured speakers work much better in larger rooms, where you sit further away!). So, my FIRST HAND experience with these 804's in a small room (approx 12 X 13), is that they work fantastic when set up properly!!! Definitely get the matching center for these 804's (the woofers being closer to the floor tend to make it easier to get good sound in the midbass with the 804's than the 805's probably!?).
As for your concern about small drivers handling the bass, actually NO FULL RANGE OR OTHERWISE monitor can handle full range bass from DD/DTS soundtracks!!!! Only exception is powered speakers with large drivers! Just about all full range monitors (even larger drivered units) bottom out or sound like week mush when you hit em with Digital bass mixes!!!...they just can't handle it! YOu really need a powered sub to handle the bottom (or two), and let your speakers be configured for "small" on the processor! The only downside to this, is that the standard 80hz crossover on most receivers "small" setting is really to high! 50-60hz is much much better, presserving the integrity and speed and punch in that portion of the bass region!...then let the sub handle bellow that! You'll need a pre/pro or receiver with flexible bass management however. Acurus, Aragon, Lexicon, B&K, Anthem, Theta, etc., all make processors with this advanced bass management flexibility!
Anyway, you can run the B&W's full range for music, as music isn't anywhere near as demanding in the deep bass as movie mixes, which are about 5-10 X's more potent there!!!A good choice for a small potent sub are the little Velodyne's or Sunfires.
have fun...