Basement home theater setup

[Woody]

I like it.

Is your gear going under your TV?

Where are you placing the sub?

Recommendation another poster said. Accoustic panels.

A canvas painting won't be nearly absorbtive enough to help. But if that is what you want to put there, I would just do it. Lots of times it is not easy to make accoustic treatments "pretty" without spending a ton of money.

You can cloth wrap accoustic panels to match room decor for not much money, but obviously that is a far cry from an actual piece of art. The most important accoustic treatments you can add are at the first point of reflection.

Your speaker layout is solid (within the recommended "cone" for your main 3 channels).

To answer your question about rear speaker placement (channels #6 and #7), it gets to the point (especially with dipoles) that human hearing can barely discern the location of sounds behind you. Everything about our hearing faces forward.

A funny test is having someone move around with 1 speaker behind you and trying to guess where they are standing. It is amazing how hard it is for us to pick up directionality of sound when it comes from behind us.

Long story short, your chosen location is just as good as the above recommended location for your surround back channels.

I also recommend if you have a local custom install shop nearby, have them do an accoustical analysys of your room to help with sub placement.