Seeking advice for speakers for my Family Room

Since Marantz and Denon are owned by Sound United, would you say the Denon 3700h would sound similar to the Marantz?

I don't have direct experience with Denon, but I would not automatically assume that it sounds the same.  Marantz is also the only receiver to have discrete analog output stages.  The higher end receivers are better.

lol, I generally don't monitor the Speakers sub forum much because opinions are all over the place.

Klipsch are not that great of a speaker and can sound harsh.  The KEF are going to have a bright edge to the sound due to their metal dome tweeter.  I actually think their metal dome has more of a bright edge than other metal domes. 

The same goes for Focal with their exacting beryllium tweeter or the older generation aluminum dome.

The Sonus Faber are excellent speakers and may work out for you because they are more forgiving in the high frequencies due to their soft-dome tweeter.  In your room, this may be the best speaker solution.  I do not generally recommend Sonus Faber to people who want a fast-responding high resolution home theater system, but it may help compensate for all your hard tile surfaces.

Otherwise, you can try a Marantz receiver.  Their sound has high frequencies that are softened and rolled off.

I would not recommend Monitor Audio speaker because their ribbon tweeters are so bright.  The Monitor Audio sound is also a hard edged sound that would not work in your room with so much tile and reflective surfaces.

I would not recommend Wharfedale EVO 4.4 either because of their ribbon tweeter.  Actually, you should avoid any speaker with ribbon tweeter or metal dome tweeter.  Look for speakers with soft-dome tweeters, unless you are able to compensate with warm sounding electronics such as Marantz.

There are several Sonus Faber Venere speakers on audiogon for $2-3k used if you're interested.  Dynaudio may be another brand to look at, but I personally don't think they are as resolving as other speakers.

I think the recent set of recommendations is failing to realize that this person has a really difficult room with a LOT of hard reflective surfaces.  I see one medium size floor rug and foot rest.  Most of the recent recommendations won't really work for him, even though they are great items.

-Do these wall art panels need to be a certain thickness to be effective at sound absorbtion?

A sound panel does not really need to be thicker than 2". You only need really thick panels if you want to treat/absorb bass frequencies. I don’t think you will have bass node issues in your very large room and connected rooms.

It makes sense to put the speakers wider so that they are in front of the windows for the window treatments to absorb the sound. Will look into acoustic panels, larger rug and artwork on the side wall. The back wall is going to be an issue

There is a reason to put absorption right behind the speakers. When sound is generated by speakers, the sound waves will be reflected by the walls behind your listening position. Many reflections make their way back torwards the speaker and are actually reflected again by the wall "directly behind the speaker". This double-echo is what you want to avoid. That is the primary reason for recommending you move the speakers wider to be in front of the windows and use very heavy curtains as a sound absorber for mid and high frequencies.

Ultimately, that whole tile floor as well as the tile wall behind the tv is what is killing you. Drywall is pretty okay for acoustics, but you still want to catch first reflections.

Wall behind TV - I would look into maybe doing a heavy curtains here. One heavy curtain behind the tv to cover the tile - or possibly a diffusion panel to cover the tile. The diffusion panel could get expensive. Then heavy curtains for the windows. If you use curtains for both tile and windows, maybe think about floor-to-ceiling curtains so that the window/tile sections all look uniform (this is good for wife-acceptance-factor).

Left wall - you currently have this multi-colored painting. I would look into getting a couple of GIK Acoustics art deco panels. Maybe a couple of 24x24 panels. Or even a big 48x36 if you want. You don’t need a whole lot of treatment on this wall, but you do need some.  The panel should come down to the level of the couch.  Good hint - put a mirror on the left wall and move it around.  If there is a point where you can see the speakers from your listening position on the couch, you definitely need a panel there. See here:

https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/acoustic-art-panels/

Floors - put as many large thick area rugs as possible. You have a small rug in front of your couch and I also see a small rug under that coffee table. I think the tile floor right in front of the speaker should get thick rugs for sure.

Backyard windows - this is likely far away enough where it won’t affect acoustics too much, but you can put curtains on these windows as well if you still need a little bit more echo absorption. This will help.

I would not necessarily look at replacing your receiver with warmer sounding equipment such as Marantz just yet.  Work on the room treatments first, and maybe your Sonus Faber speakers.  Then see how things sound.

That sounds good.  I have always liked Sonus Faber speakers.  They are very natural and full sounding, good resolution.  The only very minor downside is that they are not as fast/resolving in the higher frequencies when compared to other speakers (such as diamond or beryllium tweeters).

Since the Lumina V is a down-firing port, I would not put any sort of rug or carpet underneath the speaker because it could impede the airflow for the bass frequencies (there's not much space there with the spikes).  Your thick rug should start about 5-8" IN FRONT of the speaker, but should not be underneath the speaker. lol.You should be able to place them closer to the wall.  It is speakers that have rear firing ports that really need to be farther away from the wall.

Having the rug go underneath the couches is not a problem. 

If you move the speakers to in front of the windows and can do some heavy velvet curtains, that may solve a lot of problems.  You may not have to treat the tile behind the TV.

Do these acoustic treatments one step at a time and see the result.  You may end up having to do a second large area rug for that sitting area with the glass coffee table.  You could also do runner rugs behind your couch/sitting areas as well:

https://www.macys.com/shop/area-rugs/runner-rugs?id=190872&cm_sp=c2_1111US_catsplash_rugs-_-row2-_-image_runners&edge=hybrid

I'm not really a fan of room correction and I have really tried working with Dirac.  Others have different opinions.

If you are not going to use the amp part of the receiver, you are actually better off getting a processor.  Look for a used Marantz AV7702 MKII, AV7703, AV7704, or AV7704.  These are very commonly on ebay for $1000-1800.

I think I have also seen the Anthem AVM-60 near the $2k mark.  That's also a good item.

Ok, so if you really want to buy a receiver, that's fine.  Just keep in mind that the power supplies are not the best.  The higher end receivers will end up being better because the main power supply is much bigger, even if you are just using the amp for surrounds.  You'll get a smoother/fuller sound typically.  Usually the best cost per performance are the receiver models just below the highest one.