jejvtr, FWIW: The arrangement I suggested for the surrounds is directly from DOLBY LABS specs. Now if they who invented Dolby Surround don't know where the speakers should go, then I suppose no one does. Crutchfield? Now there's a true professional outfit. Sort of like Best Buy/Circuit City for the internet. Gauranteee they know ALL there is to know (sarcasm if you don't recognize it) about AV systems. "You offer such great advice and in such a polished tone, it makes me want to hang on your every word, follow all your threads and responses - let me guess you are in your 20's and you really do "know it all" don't you? (sic)" I'm sorry I don't come across with a "polished tone" as you would like. But it REALLY bothers me when someone NOT in this profession gives such glaringly incorrect advice. I have a difficult time being politically correct when dealing with ignorance. My bad that. But I can't see sugar coating it. Out of ignorance you gave bad advice. And, to me, giving bad advice is stupidity. I equate that ging of bad advice with giving road directions when you really don't know the way. Not a smart thing to do. And FYI I actually do not claim to "know it all". And, unless I started in this industry before I was born, I am not some 20 year old (30 or 40 either for that matter).

Honestly I think you're way overdoing it. I think you should put two speakers in the kitchen, none in the dining room, and buy decent equipment for your family room. I can't for the life of me imagine why you need four speakers in the dining room, directly adjacent to the family room and right in the air travel path of the sound coming from your front two speakers, which should be the best sounding speakers in the house. The family room, like it or not, is what will be making the sound for the dining room. You will never want to be listening to one thing in the dining room and another in the family room, it will sound awful for everybody. If you did this, one benefit would be that you could get a nice two-zone 7.1 amp and be able to control everything from your phone.

RIGHT SIZE MINI SPLIT SYSTEMS: https://www.air-conditioning-heating.org/ 9000 Btu|3/4 Ton|(under 400 Sq Feet) 12000 Btu|1 Ton|(400-600 Sq Feet) 18000 Btu|1.5 Ton|(600-800 Sq Feet) 24000 Btu|2 Ton|(800-1200 Sq Feet) 30000 Btu|2.5 Ton|(1200-1500 Sq Feet) 36000 Btu|3 Ton|(1500-1800 Sq Feet) 48000 Btu|4 Ton|(1800-2000 Sq Feet) 60000 Btu|5 Ton|(Over 2000 Sq Feet)

GOODMAN: ========= I don't see any comments above that would tell me to 'run away from Goodman' - so that's probably all I can ask for in an online forum. As time goes on, you may find yourself running towards Goodman. LOL. That would be ironic wouldn't it? There's this new freon ban coming and competing refrigerants have the HVAC market fragmented. Daikin (parent company of Goodman) is also a manufacturer of R32 one such replacement refrigerant coming in 2023. This equipment not yet available in USA. Lots of things we don't know yet, other than to say "she's a coming down the mountain when she comes". So in this new coming era of changing refrigerants like worn out underwear, brand names will matter less and less. If the refrigerant it uses is expensive - it will drive replacements to another new air conditioner that uses a different cheaper refrigerant. The other competing refrigerant R454b most manufacturers are choosing, however it costs more not to mention other issues. Multi part video on this subject if you have some time to kill. I've broken it down into roughly 30min installments in my Katy, Texas air conditioning blog from how we got here and where we are possibly headed over the next decade.