Equipment Rack Between Speakers...Good or Bad

@helomech, I suspect you’re right in that the speaker baffles should be in front of the rack or at least level. 

On the other hand I have also read that one noted speaker designer who believes that neither close wall placement or having the ubiquitous Hi-Fi / TV rack in between does anything harmful to the sound. In fact he promotes the idea on the grounds he can control the room / speaker dispersion patterns better and that the rack in between helps break up standing waves etc.

He may well be right, at least in regard to his deigns, and he probably (definitely in my case) knows more than the both of us combined regarding the science behind the matter. 

I did occasionally wish I had the room to find out for myself, but space considerations always forced me to use designs which allow close wall proximity (and the rack / wall mounted TV in between). And nowadays worrying about such audio finesses is the least of my concerns. But who knows the future, maybe one day I’ll get the itch back.

*Turntable placement on the other hand is another headache altogether - and that definitely matters.

I have my system and tv in-between, no other choice so I deal with it. but I do find if I angle the TV (mounted on the wall) up apposed to down it makes a difference in the sound staging. quite noticeable. not sure what is better but it was an eyeopener as to how much sound is coming from the center in reflection. 

I need to find a nice way to do room acoustics that are not homely looking for a main living area (I live in a loft).

Put your speakers as far in front of the rack as your room allows.   Problem solved.

there are really 2 questions.

1---looking at your picture, would it be better to move the rack to the side?
2---in a perfect situation, is it better to have the rack between the speakers or on the side.

answer 1---in your case it’s better to keep the rack there as it provides some break-up of reflections from the flat back wall. maybe if your room is big enough to get your speakers farther from the wall behind and you could add some diffusion on that wall, now maybe getting the rack out of the way would be a net gain.

answer 2---yes; when chasing perfection a rack between your speakers at some point becomes a liability. and while on the side is not perfect, the net gain is for the side location.

look at pictures of my system here for where it’s better on the side; my room is purpose built and finely tuned. much of which could not be done with gear between the speakers.

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/615