So I paid the money to have my new home pre-wired for 7.1 audio when they constructed it. I didn't get to see the wiring for it before it was done to know where it would be placed but when I finally did see it, it made me wonder what the hell they were thinking..

So here's the wiring setup:
Front channels are on the wall w/wiring at about 7'
Rear channels and surround rear channels are on the ceiling because the room is very open and I don't have much of a choice.
Now.. I'm going to post a picture below that's taken from my floorplan and it shows exactly where everything is.
The black boxes on the picture are the current speaker positions (you'll note that I marked the 2 on the walls as well).
The blue box is my 52" LCD that is already on the wall.
The brown shaped thing in the middle is my couch. It's a 5 piece sectional w/chaise.

Look at the position of the front surrounds in relation to the rear surrounds and you'll see why I think they were total morons.
The red boxes are the positions I'm thinking of moving the rear surrounds to and moving the front surrounds to the current rear surround position.

Are they freaking crazy or was their some method to this madness?

ajax

any input?

Your proposed moves, that is assuming that part of the sectional parallel to the display is the primary seat bring things more in line with the Dolby Labs suggested layouts. (http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout2.html)

For what it is worth though, listening from behind the line of the side surrounds, with the rears to the rear, in 7.1 setup, also seems to work. If anything it is a bit more, well, surrounded and doesn't interfere with localizing sounds in the front.