I appreciate your comments, Ray. As I've further researched this with an acoustical engineer as well as a theater room designer, I've learned that the in-walls would not improve my situation any more than placing the speakers in boxes as originally proposed. Exactly what you said. The theater room designer seems to think that because the speakers are front ported, the box issue isn't as bad as it could be. He recommended that I could still place the speakers in baffled boxes (his idea originally) and extend the fronts of the speakers 1/2" into the room. If I were to place the speakers in front of the screen I would actually lose more than the 20", since that assumes placing the speakers up against the wall and I'd probably want to allow at least 12", so my loss would be closer to 3 feet. I should also mention that I'm pretty much invested in the set of Paradigms I own, having spent almost $3,000 on fronts, center, surrounds and rears. I have one other option and that is to move everything back into the old media room, which measures 13'x22' (it's now my exercise room). It has problems in that it has a large window (which I could cover) and I would have to do some serious re-wiring as it originally just held a large TV. Also, I love the isolation of the new HT room. Decisions, decisions.....I would appreciate your further inputs and Alan's inputs as to whether the front porting really makes that much of a difference.
