Moving out, need help designing with HT design

After many years of shoehorning my front projection home theatre in my bedroom, I'm buying my own place and can finally set things up like I'd like to. Well, mostly. The not-so-good news is that its a co-op on the 5th floor so I can't really blast my sub liked I'd really like to but I live in New York so my options are fairly limited. So I look to you AVSforum for help to make the best out of my situation.


The good news is that the living room is sunken so I will definitely carpet it and have the option to lay down some material under that if needed. Also the living room does not directly border my neighbors. If you look at the attached PDF (btw each square is 1ft), to the right of the living room is my bedroom which overlooks the street. To the right is my kitchen and dining area and on the other side of the wall is my neighbor's kitchen and dining area. Its not ideal but at least its not their bedroom or anything. Below the room is a foyer area and on the other side of the wall is the hallway and stairs. Since its the corner or the building it does not get much traffic. My sub will have to be set fairly low and I plan to get a Buttkicker LFE kit for the sofa.

Do you think the room is sufficiently isolated or should I do further soundproofing?


At the moment I have the following gear that I would like to still use.

Epos ELS3 Stereo Fronts
Epos ELS3C Center Channel
Velodyne VRP-1200 Sub

Xbox360


What I plan to get.

Panasonic PT-AX100U Projector
Buttkicker LFE Kit

Surround Speakers

Receiver


I was planning on getting a Sanyo Z4 for the last year but the reviews of the new Panny has me sold. I have a crappy projector now so I know about the pros and cons and I'm perfectly fine with them. I will be getting blackout shades for the bay windows and besides that there is really no ambient light. My best friend is a contractor so he will be running power and HDMI to the ceiling and speaker cable to behind the sofa.


Surround speakers present a bit of a problem for me. My sofa is up against the rear wall so that limits me to a 5.1 system. However I don't really have much room on either side of the sofa which leaves me with using stands or ceiling mounting. Stands are tough too because since I have a window on one side of the couch and the entrance to the living room on the other. Based on this I think my best option is to ceiling mount the rears about a foot away from the couch and angle down.

Is ceiling mounting like that a good idea or should I stick with stands?


My next question is what surround speakers should I get? I really don't want to buy another pair of Epos's for the rear because they are pretty big and I think it would be overkill. I know it is best to match but surrounds aren't as important as fronts and I'm willing to cut some corners here.


The receiver I'm also undecided on. I really don't know much about audio but I know I want HDMI switching to futureproof and that Yamaha and Onkyo are a very good bang for your buck. Beyond that I'm clueless and would appreciate a recommendation.


Thanks in advance.

 

FHS Living room.pdf 6.837890625k . file