Hi everyone,

I am currently trying to step up my game a little, and move away from producing mainly on headphones. To do so, I am planning on using my Kitchen/living area as a space. This seems like a bad idea at first, but because I rarely use the kitchen, and usually do my studio in large chunks over 3 weeks, with a week or two break after each "session", it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

So, My Kitchen/Living room is 5409mm x 4369mm x 2450mm (LxWxH) (Not including the kitchen bit. Length is measured from the back of the room to the front of the cupboards) resulting in a volume of 57.92m³. The ratio is 1:1.78:2.21. All walls are think brickwork covered in plaster. Below is a sketch of the room. I included the proposed layout of my 1500mm x 750mm work desk, the speaker positioning in red,my head position and the first reflection point absorbtion in blue.

I only own a very bad pair of speakers at the moment and I'm therefore buying a new pair. I'm torn between the Yamaha HS8 (Bass reflex opening at the back) and the Adam F7 (Opening at the front).

Proposed layout 1 :

There grey box at the back represents an excavation in the wall for a fireplace. It is 1200mm high and 550mm deep.
There is no sofa/bean bag in the room (yet), but I am planning on putting one in there.
I am also planning on making all wall absorbtion "good looking" so it can be installed permanently without making the room like like a studio. I have already read a few threads on covering insulation (mineral whool) in fabric for that.

The window is a good bit behind the first reflection point as well, so I assumed it wouldn't be a problem either.
I think a problem with the Yamaha HS8 would be, that the area behind the speakers (the "kitchen") would form a very uneven reflection area for the bass reflex opening at the back.
The cupboards are all wooden, while the back face and the workplace are covered with a 2mm think aluminum layer.
The speakers would be at the same height as the aluminum backwall.
Picture: (http://postimg.org/image/zcnq38agn/)

Another one of the Problems I see is the small entrance "room" that is connected to the bottom right. I tried to work around it by placing the speakers at around the same height the entrance to that little room starts, so all deflections are away from it. Could it still be a problem? A closeup of the extra room and its connection to the main room is attached (there's no door).

Proposed layout 2:

In this case, I would get the Adam F7 becuase the speakers have to be right at the wall in order to create a first reflection point thats in front of the window, and not covering the window.

So, my main questions:
1. Would the small entrance area have big negative effects?
2. What about the kitchen area? Will it affect the sound negatively, especially with the rear port speakers?
3. Would everything at the back be the better position?
4. Making the sound panels for the first point of reflection a little bit bigger than they have to be, so they can be in the center of a wall does no harm, right?
5. What other additional sound treatment is neccesary or advisable?

Attached files