My "home theater" is in the living room with average sunlight. There is a built in bookshelf on one side of the room which makes me have to move the TV a little bit from the center of the room in order for it to fit exactly between the shelf and the wall on the other side. I want to setup surround sound, how should I set it up? Should I set the two front speakers according to my setup? Or should I set the speakers aligned with the center of the room? This bothers me because my ceiling has a wedding cake design. If it's off center, then the speakers will look bad (to me it will). I want it to sound good as well as look good. Also, the rear speakers, how should I set those up? Should I center-align it with my setup or with the room? I am hanging the speakers on the wall by the way. In the near future, I am planning to get the Onkyo TX-SR605, so that might be useful info for you (I think I can use a microphone to calibrate the 5.1/7.1 speakers) Thanks!

To the extent that you can align everything to a perpindicular from the center of the display to the primary listening position. If your primary listening position consists of two chairs close together use a point half way between them. That is try to duplicate the Dolby Labs suggested layouts (http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout2.html).

If you cannot place the side or back pair equidistant from the line it should still be OK. Your receiver’s auto setup will compensate for the any differences the distance from the measurement point to each speaker in terms of both volume and delay.

If you can though, keep the mains equidistant from the edges of the display. Otherwise sounds at the extreme right or left will seem to come from different distances (is the doorbell at the edge of the set or in the next county).

How it looks is a different matter.