I think it would be prudent to move into the new place before making any equipment changes. It's been my experience that the room makes a huge difference, then the number of channels, and then speaker placement; my ears aren't good enough to discern differences between mainstream electronic devices at normal listening volumes (if they exist).
For stereo listening, I've had holographic soundstage and pinpoint imaging when placing the speakers along the narrow wall. All of my homes since then have had the speakers on the wide wall or diagonal, so I've relied on 5.1 Dolby Digital upmixing to achieve the same effect.
