42" and the couch sits about 9 feet away.

Sounds like the previous owner's setup in what's now my house (a small Victorian terrace; the whole room is only 11ft in that direction). It was IMO a bit much, and made it feel weird using the room for anything other than TV. Now I've got a 17in widescreen TFT (I couldn't stand 50Hz flicker out of the corner of my eye, and 100Hz CRTs don't come in small sizes) which is much more like it. Oh, and no rear speakers as yet.

Peter