Ted,
Nice looking room. I can understand why your wife doesn’t want to clutter it up with speakers. If it were my room, set up as shown with the entertainment center you have and furniture arrangement, I’d have a hard time figuring out what to do to get optimal sound but yet maintain the flow of the room. Bad news is your entertainment center is too dam big. It leaves you with few options to work with. I can understand why you have cubes where they are. I was looking at the EC thinking how you could modify if and place some book shelves in it, but I’m drawing a blank, and I’m pretty good at coming up with innovative cabinetry designs.
I think your only option is to go with speakers in the corners of the room. I would ditch the book shelf idea and go with M60 towers. I would take some close up pictures of the entertainment center and floor, and send them to Amie and ask her to send you some wood samples that would match the entertainment center, or possibly the floor (depending on what you wife thinks would be the better match). When you get them, you could then involve your wife and figure out which species of wood, which stain color and what finish would be the better match.
I suspect that if you take this course, you and your wife will enjoy the end result much more than trying to compromise and screwing up the flow and overall, very nicely decorated room. A set of real wood speakers with a nice piano finish looks more akin to a fine piece of furniture than an ugly misplaced obstacle.
Plus, when you get the bosses buy in, you can typically buy more stuff……(it’s that whole inclusion thing)
