Miscanthus,

I think you will find the Meter thingy to really help balance the sound. Once done don't hesitate to play with the channel volume while watching a movie. I found bumping some of the speakers up a little made a huge difference in how the side and rear speakers filled the back half of the room.

I looks like you decided to stay with 7.1 I think you will be glad you did. It made a very noticeable difference in the surround affect when I set up my 990 a few months ago and added 2 more speakers. Even if you are only sending the same signal to side and rear on each side having sound from both directions is a whole different effect. You may want to play with the delay/speaker distance as that will change how the sound from the surrounds reach your ears. There are a lot of things to play with. You should have a good time doing it.

Brad