Best monitor for HT

The 805s are one of my favorite speakers. They do a great job on music and HT. However, you have to make sure that your associated components are up to the level of the 805s to get the best out of them. In my opinion, the 805 is superior to the 804 and 803. Good luck.

Hmmm...I found the 805 to be quite bright for HT use, where there's simply an excess of top octave junk. Spendor S3/1p L&R and their SC3 center certainly work great for me, and NEVER fatigue. I just don't have to worry as much about lousy source material, the midrange is great (as expected), and the bottom's nice and Britishy-quick. Boston VR-MX surrounds mate well, as well their PV1000 fast-paced sub.
I DO appreciate more linear top octave performance in my ref 2 ch system (VA Parsifal Encores), but again, HT is a different can of worms...oops---priorities.

The 805 isn't a bright speaker at all ..hogwash! Maybe mated with some bright gear, their "semi-netutral" palat would tip towards bright...like maybe for instance being mated with some Chord gear or whatever. At least I remember Chord being bright.
I hear so many times people calling the more Neutral/accurate sounding speakers "bright"! This is more a problem when you mate these speakers with bright gear, which makes them sound bright!!!!...this is a problem with more critically balanced gear on the neutral/accurate side!..they show through any system flaws. Still, I would not call the 805's bright. If anything, the older matrix 805's could be slightly more tipped up!
But, I understand this depends on who you ask!..traditionally the British like more "mellow" slightly "rounded off on top" sounding monitors, compared to the more analytical, often, yes, "brigher" speakers in other parts of Europe. I tend to like transparent, finely tweeked and balanced, more accurate speakers!..there's a fine line indeed.
If you like the 805's well enough, you could get excellent results if set up correctly!..which is the key. In a small room, they'll need to be away from walls a bit, but set up high in the rears non-the-less. Also, you'll need to sit acoustically closer to them thanyou are to the walls in regards to proximity! This is critical if you have limited acoustical treatment espeically. Hearing more of the direct sound from that speaker, rather than closely delayed reflections from the walls and ceiling, is going to get you a more accurate, dynamic, transparent and dialog intelligable sound!
good luck

Sounds like a lot of support for the 805. I thought maybe I'd hear a lot of folks pitchning the Taylor Taylo or VR-1. Dolby Digital audio and solid state amps can definitely create a bright/harsh sound, but I don't want speakers that will attempt to compensate for that. (That is what THX re-eq is for, if anything at all)

Looks like I'll be going for the B&W. Thanks!

The 805's are controversial speakers. Some find them bright and fatiguing. Others think they are accurate. I don't think that anyone would call them forgiving. Decide for yourself. Listen to the 805's with gear comparable to what you are going to use. Bring some of your harsher sounding music and DVD's.