Hi, Greg,
In our set-up, our sofa is 11-12 feet from the TV-center-mains plane. The room's about 18-feet wide, and opens to a dining room in one direction and a small foyer in another. Until early this year, our sofa was flanked by two good-sized windows, each with a drape. This wall has a west exposure, and we decided to lose one of the windows, the one in the center of the long LR/DR wall. The window was replaced with studs, insulation, siding, and drywall. (I can't notice a difference in losing a large draped window to drywall, even though it's directly across from one main.)
Above our sofa we have a large oriental rug--a kilim, to be exact. It does a good job of absorbing the three front speakers' direct sound. If your wife and you might like something like that, it might be a better-looking alternative to the panels.
I know panels can be expensive, especially good ones. Oriental rugs can be, too. But if you shop around, you can find good deals. A case in point is the one over our sofa. My gf is REALLY picky about oriental rugs. If they don't have a certain build-quality, she turns her nose up at them. We found our big wall-hanging one in Paris for about $300-350--a real steal, considering it's authentic (but not old). We got two other smaller rugs at the same shop that day. All we had to do to bring them home was buy a super-cheap suitcase--more of a reinforced bag than a suitcase, really--and check that piece in as luggage. We'd each brought only one checked bag, so we had plenty of room to spare.
I'm not suggesting you go to Paris for your wall treatment, but you might see if there's a real oriental rug dealer near you. By "real," I mean not a carpet chain. I mean a real Mideast retailer who carries good rugs and will work with you on a price. I bought my gf a pretty rug that we found in a Chicago suburb once. I never would have gotten it for her if she hadn't been there. But she was, she had a b'day coming up, and she loves oriental rugs, so... We got a good rug for a good price.
Chris
