So here is my situation. Due to my lovely bride needing more light in our living room, the 67” Samsung DLP is going to be moved from in front of the window of our TV room to the opposite wall. I had wired the room for 6.1 surround so I get to undo all that and rewire for the new mirror-image room.

I currently have an Onkyo TX-NR901 6.1 receiver, an HSU STF2 sub and a bunch of mismatched speakers. The other reason I am moving the room around at the request of my wife and not complaining is because, when I noticed that my center channel speaker had some “bites” out of the speaker cone thanks to my male Jack Russell, my wife says, “If you need new speakers, just buy them.” Um…. OK! Goodbye, mismatched speakers (which include a pair of Pioneer large fronts I bought from Jafco in 1991 – which have actually been pretty good!), and HELLO AXIOM!!!

The room I have for the HT is 14’ long by 13’ wide with 8’ ceilings. Once everything is swapped around, if you are sitting on the couch, the window will be behind you and the couch (due to room size) will be directly against the outside/window wall. There is another outside wall to the right (which has a fireplace on it so a no go for the TV), the TV and fronts will be on an internal wall opposite the couch, and there is no wall to the left as the room is open to the kitchen.

Since I have the green light, and want to future proof when we move to a house where I can have a dedicated HT (which may occur within 3-4 years), I want to go big and get M80s, the VP180, and QS8s, keeping my HSU sub in the mix.

Thanks for hanging with me for the questions:

1. With a room of about 1500 cubic feet (not counting the fact that it opens to the kitchen on the side), is that set up too much (ha – is there ever “too much”)?
2. From what I have read in these forums, my NR901 should provide enough power to run the system, but I am debating about upgrading to a 7.2 receiver – specifically the Onkyo NR809 which I think came out yesterday. Thoughts?
3. With my couch against the rear wall, what can I do, if anything, to help myself out in mounting the QS8 rear center (or rear centers if I upgrade my receiver)? This is really the main question I have – trying get the best rear soundfield when the seating position is against the rear wall. I am hoping the answering isn't: your room is too small and you are pretty much screwed. But if that,s true then that's true.
4. How do I figure out how far apart the rear centers should be (assuming I upgrade) and then how far forward from the couch the sides should be?

Thanks in advance for the help!

P.S. The front center will be above the TV, not below it and the fronts will have grills. No more "bites" in the speaker cones.