Living in a smallish tenement flat as I do where space is at a premium, I've had to make compromises in order to accommodate stereo and surround sound without adversely impacting the SQ of either. My current setup therefore, is a 4.0 system in which my AVR is connected to my stereo amp via its pre-outs so that the amp powers the front speakers in all cases.
The first picture shows the over all setup (except the rear speakers because they're on the opposite wall of course) and although it looks like there's a huge Mana Acoustics column to the right, it's actually two columns: the bottom column goes up to near the top of the speaker and the top column is on a wall shelf with my TT at the top. The second pic shows a closer view of the two columns so you can see what's on it. My kit list is detailed in my sig.
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