Very high ceilings and hardwood floors; what can I do?

[ballybrad4545]

Polk Audio Monitor70 Series II
Polk Audio CS2 Series II
YAMAHA RX-A700 7.2-Channel A/V Receiver
Polk Audio PSW Series PSW505 12" Powered Subwoofer

I am worried about not having good sound due the wierd lay out of the room?
Should I mount the rear speakers in the ceiling or the wall.
Looks are very important to my wife. LOL

Should I go with 5.1 or 7.1?

Please look at the pics and let me know your thoughts.
The link is below:

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This is my first time posting pictures and I gotta say it was a little frustrating.

 

[ballybrad4545]

Here's the link

I'm trying to get the pictures up.

 

[ballybrad4545]

Pics

Pics coming up!!

 

[Tin Ear]

I would say start off by looking for a good area rug for under your coffee table... seriously. The bigger the better. Your space is similar to mine; very open floor plan. Anything you can do with fabric window treatments and rugs and pillows will help stiffle the echo you are probably getting, that helps contribute to a harsh sound. Some atrwork on the walls may help break things up a little as well ... your wife will be quite pleased by your sudden interest in decorating .

I think you will have enough of a time establishing a good 5.1 system with that layout ... I can't begin to conceive a good 7.1 plan. This is mostly due to the fact that I am having a difficult time with the placement of your rear channels based on the layout. I think after you establish where those will go and tweak their position for the best sound, you may look at going to a 7.1 system from there. I think your ceiling is too high and angled to consider that an optimum mounting position. That coupled with the fact that most wall mounted speakers will inherently sound better would make me lean toward that option. You can try different positions and even aiming them on mounts will help your situation. Your seating layout is a challenge. If you can find a spot that is really behind all of them for the rear speakers, that would be best. I can't really tell from the pics if that is doable.

 

[yepimonfire]

get enough of these to cover every corner, ceiling "corner" (forget what it's called) and run the across the floor/wall junction if you can deal with the aesthetics, i had a laminate floor and hard walls/little furniture and put these all over the room and it totally eliminated the issues i had, even in the low frequencies. just used the wedges, no corner blocks. works very well.

The Foam Factory, Acoustic Foam, Sound proofing Foam, Bass Absorbers, Corner Blocks,

 

[ctciatti]

I'm no expert at all, but area rugs will help big time.