It was definitely a commitment- especially with the tongue and groove ceiling but thankfully it worked out just great. I just demoed my HT last night for a good friend of mine who had been telling me for the last two months that his Yamaha and Klipsch combo would blow my Outlaw/Sherwood/Polk HT away. Well.... at the end of the night he told me that he would not even let me hear his HT anymore. He is in the market now to upgrade to Outlaw, etc.

As far as the db level , the rears are set to about 4db higher than the surrounds (calibrated with an SPL meter) but I am not sure if that would have been any different with the enclosures. Just make sure that you have the spacing and distance right. You may just want to experiment with bookshelves (I did) first to get an idea. It won't be exact but it will help you to know how far back and apart you ike the back two for your room. Also try to get them timbre matched for your other speakers. Whatever you do, 7.1 is awesome and I highly recommend it.