u/Yomafacio

For some context, I'm preparing to move into a new place with a living room approximately 18'x12'. I'm planning on placing the TV (LG C5 83") on the 18' wall and a sofa on the opposite side (~10-12' away). Main use cases will be for streaming, youtube, spotify, and some minor gaming (via Switch 2).

1. Based on my understanding, since I don't have any clearance behind my sofa I'm limited to a 5.X.X system? Is there any reason to choose any of the 7.2 channel AVRs over the "extreme budget" category that only support 5.1 or 5.2? Is room correction that important?
2. How do I actually select the speakers and subwolfers? I'm assuming it makes sense to use bookshelf speakers on the front and tower speakers for the surround placement, but is there any other consideration? How should I allocate my speaker budget between the front/surround/subwolfer?
3. How do you wire the surround speakers? Do I need to add a port to the drywall on both the TV and couch side, and run it through my crawlspace?
4. Given the TV is $2400, I was thinking of giving myself a $1200-1800 budget (about what a "nice" soundbar would be, though I'm trying to avoid despite the convenience). Is this realistic? Spec'ed out something below from the ht buying guide and it's already over $2k.... I'm willing to consider a larger budget and just add missing pieces bit by bit if that's better bang for your buck than compromising halfway
5. Are there notable sales in the home theater world? Perhaps I should just live with built in speakers until memorial day (or even black friday?) if there's sales worth waiting for.

I would appreciate if anyone had any example system configurations they would recommend. Just going off the guides, the minimum seems to be in the $2k range already though:

• Denon AVR-S270BT - $300
• Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SE Pair - $370
• Ascend Acoustics CMT-340SE2 CENTER - $430
• Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SE Pair (for surround) - $370
  • Speaker stands (for surround) - $150
• Dayton CS1300 - $300
• Wire - $150 (no clue)