Rear speaker placement dilemma

Hi,

This is my first post on this board, and I am hoping some savvy home theater enthusiasts will have some suggestions for me. Here is my dilemma:

I own a bi-level home with a downstairs family room serving as my home theater. Although this is the best room in the house for this purpose, the room layout is not ideal in terms of rear speaker placement. The room is approx. 12'x20', but one of the side walls only runs about 3/4 of the length of the room - the rest of that side is missing as it is the entrance to the room. I have a pair of B&W dipole surround speakers, which should ideally be placed level with the center of the listening position (in this case a couch). Due to the missing section of wall on the right, and due to the fact that the couch only leaves about 18" of clearance on each side, I have the speakers mounted on the side walls about 2 feet in front of the listening position (they are also about 2 feet above ear level when sitting on the couch). Unfortunately, the result of this is that some of the rear sound effects appear in front of the listening position rather than fully enveloping the listening position the way they used to in my previous home (where the speakers were placed properly).

Given the room limitations I think I have two options, assuming I continue using these excellent speakers rather than opting for ceiling speakers:

1. Move both speakers a bit farther toward the rear of the room, but keep them even with each other in relation to their distance from the front wall. Since I am limited as to how far back the right speaker can go, this would still place the speakers about 12 - 18" foot in front of the listening position. I would also have to raise the height of the speakers so that no one bumps into them when walking between the couch and the wall (this would put the speakers maybe 3 feet above ear level when sitting down).

2. Alternately, I could move the right speaker back as far as it can go (same as option 1), but move the left speaker back to the proper position next to the listening area (the height would still have to be raised though so that people can walk between the couch and wall without banging their shoulder into the speaker). This would result in the speakers being an uneven distance from the front wall (a difference of maybe 2 feet or so), which could theoretically have a negative impact on panning effects. Of course, I have a sound meter that I can use to re-calibrate the sound levels no matter where I move the speakers, which may alleviate any unevenness (my receiver also has adjustments regarding distances for each speaker).

I'm sorry that was so long-winded - I guess my question is this: Do either of these options seem likely to result in much of a surround quality difference, given that we are talking about dipole speakers? If so, would it be better to live with the speakers being even but in front of the listening position, or is it OK to make them uneven with each other (knowing that this is not the recommended approach)? And finally, is raising the height likely to spoil the effects any?

Again, sorry to ramble on - just wanted to lay out all the info so that the configuration is clear. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated...