New House: Audio room/Office

In my current house I have a bit of a love/hate, or maybe dislike, relationship with where my stereo system is, in our living room.

What I like is that is it a good size room that is very open. (I also like to mute TV a lot while listening to music, though that is another issue that doesn't need addressed here.)

What I dislike is that our living room doesn't look as nice as it could because of the dominance of the stereo system and we (I) work everything around it; I am also restricted in how far I can move my speakers from the back wall, as they are coming too far into the living room.

We are considering building a new home, not because of my stereo. :) In contemplating what we'd like in a new home we have discussed making one room my office and putting my stereo in there; I work from home so I could enjoy my system through the day.

We do not have an unlimited budget so I am concerned of not having enough room and struggling to make the system sound good. At "best" the floor plans we have considered gave me a room of about 15x13, and that slightly modifying the plans we were looking at.

I would love to hear tips, advice and thoughts on this. It would be very unfortunate to plan on this and then be unhappy.