Does having an object inbetween the speakers bad?

I think 3ft is shoft enough not to present problems in most rooms. I believe how high the rack is positioned in relation to he height of the speaker drivers and of course the distance of the rack away from the speakers play an important role as well.

Removing the rptv in the middle has been one of the best sonic upgrade for me personally.

cables play a big part
the acoustic zen speaker and interconnects image very well

I bought a couple of diffusers to put between my speakers and tv - the tv is back slightly from the front of the drivers. Von Schweikert's image so well you don't notice the tv

Tom

A slight twist...not sure if it's different, but as long as the topic is up...

I've been thinking about a new arrangement for my system that would have the speakers a foot (no more) off the long wall(15 feet). The speakers are designed to have their backs close to the wall, 6-12 inches. In between the speakers would be a six-panel oriental screen that's around 6.5 tp 7 feet wide when set up in the normal mild zig-zag. The screen would be as close to the wall as possible, sort of like this -->

................................................
....|spker|...../ \ / \ / \.....|spker|....

The screen panels are 15 inches wide, anyone that seen a series of these panels can imagine what they might look like when setup in a shallow zig-zag(shallower than the characters above). I know there's nothing like the real thing and testing it, but the topic is up so...

In my case, the speakers front edge needs to be at least 10" in front of my 64" rptv or the sound is deadened. Soundstage doesn't change much. Say a prayer and move the speakers out if you've got the WAF.