The house comes before the hobby

Unless you have unlimited resources, the house comes before the audiophile journey. I wrote that rule for myself, and I still moved house partly for a room. Both are true.

A house has to satisfy family conditions first: size, proximity to work, schools, amenities. The shape of the living room for optimal high-end listening is, at best, a secondary consideration. Anyone who reverses that order will pay for it at home.

Let me be direct with you. My joke about divorce papers is still a joke, but the order of priorities is not. A system can be moved, upgraded or sold; a family's daily life cannot be rearranged around a speaker position.

When the opportunity came, I had my own list: a butterfly layout and a rectangular living room of 1,000 square feet or more, with other rooms branching off to the sides. I would never hand that list to anyone as the first criterion for a home. And even then the room had to stay a living room, because if it does not feel like home, you will not enjoy sitting there for hours.

Buy the house for the family. Then fight for the room inside it.