Yes the idea was to optimize the sound for the front row. I almost had it optimized for one seat in the ultra-sweet spot but the wife would have none of that so it is a compromise sweet spot (what the heck, she makes me popcorn for every movie
..no not microwave, too many hydrogenates).
My main goal was to keep the wire runs to the wall plates as short as possible but worst case scneario is that I end up using painted flat wire to hide most of the length.
If I stick with Dolby Digital EX then the rears are likely fine where they are. If a lot of 7.1 material happens to appear on the market then a wider rear channel separation would seem to be best. At least with using wall plates, I have the flexibility of adding as much wire as I need and moving the speakers to where they will end up sounding the "best".
