Hi Amy, we left the trim in the in-cabinet speakers unpainted, I plan on staining them with the same stain I'll use on the bar. My QS8's are right about in-line with the seating positions possibly slightly behind by about 6". Glad to hear you like your QS8's!

I bet that will look sharp. What a great project!

ha, yeah, i guess i'm committed to that. I pretty sure the 63" plasma will be enough for me anything bigger would require a different room

Next week will be a big week. Electrical will be finished on Monday, tile goes in on Wednesday, and the bar should be done by the end of the week. We will be out of town at a wedding all week, when we get back it will look much different than it does now!

Must be fun and exciting times! When I bought my speakers I had to leave them in the boxes for about 4 months until my room was done and they were ready to be installed. I am sure you will be thrilled.

My personal experiences with 5.1 and 7.1 are that the 7.1 mixes aren't a big deal but if you have a big room it's just nice to have more surround speakers to fill in the space. I just have the AVR use DPIIx or NEO6 convert the 5.1 to 7.1 for me.

Here is an early diagram for my HT that I just completed. I ended up putting QS8s on the side surrounds and QS4's in the rear. Because of how far apart the side surrounds are I'm glad I did it. Now that said I've had smaller HT rooms and I believe the two extra speakers in back don't add much there.

Here are a few more images with the cabinets painted and the floor about halfway complete:

So I unboxed all the the speakers today (except for the sub, it hasn't arrived yet). I set the 4311 up on my wife's desk, tuned in a local classical station and tested each speaker individually and in pairs. Somewhere along the line the effort transitioned from "testing" to simple, wonderful, beautiful, satisfaction. My mother-in-law came down from upstairs and said "it's so beautiful!" looking at me as if I had just painted a masterpiece. I'm pretty sure shes never heard music over a system like this before. I've cleaned everything up, tucked the mains and the surrounds out of the way, stashed the boxes upstairs in the guest room, however I have left the center channel out because I am enjoying the music so much. I don't think its that much in the way, maybe it can stay out until the room is ready for it...

I have to admit, I looked at that picture and thought: What speaker manufacturer is THAT?!

Very nice, and welcome to the club.

Win! Right there! Beauty! Joy! YES.

Niveka, I do hope you and your family will enjoy your new system for many years to come.

Can you comment (or provide pictures?) about the exterior quality of the in-cabinet VP180? I know that is a strange request considering it's intended use, but I have considered getting one and using it "out in the open" so that I can set my current (RP) TV on top of it. I can't do this with the regular VP180 because of its slanted cabinet. It appears that the exterior of the cabinet is a pretty decent black laminate. How does it look with the grill on? How is the construction detail of the mounting flange?

Thank you again for the excellent story.