Wow, I don't know what to say about all of your kind words. Thanks! Glad you all like the set-up. It's incredible to the ears, that's for sure. I'm extremely happy with it, and the wood/stain and grill colors.
I not sure what someone mean by a custom plaque in the background, but if you meant the white rectangle inside the bookcase in the last picture, behind the loveseat - then that's just the of the boxes that contain the wooden chest filled with feet, alan wrench such as part of the VaSSaLLO Line.
Oh, and "HAY", me, upset over your photoshop pic - NO WAY. IT WAS GREAT. I'm sure you only expressed what my cat (Mina) is actually expressing/repressing, inside.
That's a keeper!
Actually one reason I keep the grill on the sub is due to the large front port openning - it large enough for a cat to get into.
Oh "Mojo" and "Bridgeman" about the side axis speakers...
I don't know what kind of set-up/amp/rec you guys have but my Sherbourn actually has a side-axis channel output on the receiver/decoder which in turn is powered by an outboard amp. (The main Sherbourn amp only does 7.1) On the Sherbourn the axis is made up from the differenct between the front Left and Side Left Surround - and same of course for the Front Right and Right Side Surround.
I find it actually spreads out the frontal soundstage more, depending on the film and how it is mixed. It broadens the scope to extend beyound the front 3 channels. This is especially true with music at times giving the impression of have an orchestra laid out begore the listener swaying across the front part of the room, not just side to side of the TV. Also it tends to really extend the Right/Left much wider. The real trick I found was the volume setting. I tend to make the axis speakers lower than the Front R & L. This allows them to stand by way of the delay setting in stead of being overly loud and drowning out the real Front L & R locations. It's weird really since there isn't just the L&R Axis but also plain Front L&R. Again, this is how it works with the Sherbourn, it may be different with other Rec/Amps and how they decode. So "Bridgeman", to answer your question, I don't have them wired in paralle.
"Mojo", the surrounds sound just fine near the door. Becuase of the way the room is the alcove, near the front door tends to focus the sound from both the Side Surround and the Back Surround so I have to compensate with a lover volume - just one would with any set-up via a sound meter.
One thing I have noticed while experimenting was slightly differnt heights to all the speaker tends to accentuates each channel and allows each to standout better and more defined. This is why I have the heights all off from each other but in pairs (except the Front Center to itself of course).
Again, thanks all for the great response.
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