I've just moved into my new home and I'm trying to decide what to buy for the family room which will be my home theatre. The room has an interesting layout and I don't really know where to put the front speakers. I was lucky enough to have the builder put speaker wires into the back wall for rears. I also have a smurf tube installed on the back wall running to the crawl space and a smurf tube running behind the cabinetry to the upper and lower cabinets so wiring in those locations are easiest. I'm willing to spend money/time on additional wiring as needed.

I've attached photo of the room as well as a drawing with dimensions of the room. The ceiling is 9 feet high. The left side of the room opens to the kitchen.

I haven't bought anything yet so I'm VERY open to opinions or advice

This is the equipment I'm considering:
Television - JVC HD70FH97
A/V Receiver - Denon AVR-3808CI or Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH

My components will include

Xbox 360 (w/ HD-DVD drive)
DirecTV HD-DVR
Sony 400 Disc DVD Changer


From reading this forum, I think that I first need to decide what locations I want my speakers and then choose a brand/model.

I'm pretty set on mounting the rear speakers on the back wall (using wall mounts) so I'm a bit concerned with aesthetics (I don't think my wife will like having giant boxes hanging on the walls). I have an L shaped couch and I think that I can put the sub next to it on either side (either by the fireplace or by the kitchen). The fronts are still a question in my mind. The options I've considered are (It doesn't seem that either is ideal):

Use only an LCR instead of having a center and 2 fronts
Put the Center above the cabinets mounted on the wall and have the left/right on one of the shelves

I don't think that my wife will be willing to let me have a floater speaker near the kitchen so it seems that 7.1 is out.

Aside from the locations, I'm also rather confused with the sheer number of options I have for speakers. I'm looking to spend under 3K for the 5 speakers + sub, but if I need to go a bit over to get a great product, I can finagle it. The speakers I've read about are Era, Paradigm, Aperion, Infinity, Mirage, Ascend, Jamo, and B&W. All of these seem great, but I really don't know what to do.

So, I'm interested in getting some advice from this forum
1. Where should I put the speakers?
2. What brand/model would work best in my situation?

I look forward to the discussion.

Just wanted to add a couple of other options to your list of speakers. Check out the swans at theaudioinsider and the rockets at av123. Both are outstanding and both are on sale at amazing prices.

Ouch...tough room. Look at Axiom speakers...axiomaudio.com

As to where to put them?????? Good question.