thanks all, I will report back when I get this thing fired up, though I suspect my report will be as uninformed and worth as much as my initial question...

I am cross-posting this at the Ascend forums as well but the one thing I failed to think about before yesterday was the shape/size of my room. i'm pasting a drawing below but basically we have a big one: 30x15 for the main "living area," but it's an open floorplan, so the kitchen is really part of a larger room that's in total 30x24. the TV sits near the center but diagonally facing the center of the living room.

i plan to put the speakers next to the TV. foresee any major problems?

(dark blue are walls for entryway and hallway)