I recently moved into a new house after having lived in apartments for many years. I never used to pay much thought to speaker placement; I just threw it up knowing I would take it down in a year or so. Now that I am in a more permanent situation, I am trying to learn all I can about proper speaker placement.

Here is my room layout:



The 7.1 HT setup will go in the Family Room. Whoever designed this house was smart enough to make it a golden ratio rectangle (excluding the stairway, which leads to the basement). The back of the room opens up to the kitchen with no way of closing it off.

My equipment:
61" JVC Pro HD-P61R1U
H/K AVR-635
Ascend Acoustics speakers
340SE F/R
340cSE C
170SE L/R/SL/SR
HSU VTF3-HO (preordered)

My initial thought is to put the TV on the shorter outside wall (15'). The couch would go 8-10' from the screen, and the side surround speakers would be just far enough back to miss the door to the garage.

My question is about the rear left and rear right surround speakers. I assume they will need to be equidistant from the sweet spot. I would prefer not to block the opening to the kitchen, which severly limits my options. Is it OK to have the rear surrounds relatively close together? What imaging will I miss out on with such a setup?

Also, any pitfalls I should be aware of with the stairway in the corner?

Thanks in advance for any input.