That is a gorgeous room, and you guys have really good design sense. I personally would not mess that up with speakers. Put a sound bar in that room and use the money save for the man cave.
I agree with this. My wife and I wanted to avoid putting a lot of audio geek gear in our living room, so I took over a bedroom for our home theater. My living room has a merely adequate sound bar. Anything is better than tv built-in speakers. One of these days I might replace it with the
Atlantic Technology speaker base after I get some debts paid off.
I guess if your wife vetoes acoustic panels, then an area rug, fabric furniture, throw pillows, Pier One Imports type 3d wall art, lamps, house plants, every little bit should help. You probably won't get anything like a sound stage, but at least a speaker bar or speaker base will greatly improve dialogue.