Center placed equipment stands

In addition to no rack or a low rack between speakers, don't stare at anything. Close your eyes and LISTEN. Music always sounds better with eyes closed.

My speakers are 6' from the front wall which is populated by tall equipment racks and CD storage. If you've got the space to move your speakers out into the room the racks will act as live end diffusers. As I experimented with speaker placement I found that it got better and better the further I moved the speakers into the room. Fortunately I've got a big room (35' x 22') so this is possible.

I had a similar experience. My stands are 13 inches high. I was doing some housekeeping recently and had occasion to place a cardboard carton of LPs on the floor between my floor standers immediately in front of the electronics stands. The improvement in soundstage and detail was obvious and immediate. Strikes me it was the equivalent of placing electronics closer to the floor. Mysteries of acoustics. My wife won’t let me keep the box there, but I’m going to experiment some on the basis of the improvement I heard.

Yyzsantabarbara 

get a heavy set of floor to ceiling drapes . Fabric stores have millions of options for cheap. Slide your desk closer to the windows. Put your stereo rig in the closet. Place your speakers on either side of your work station. Just above the monitors. Set the two tall pads in the corner opposite  the windows. Keep the one between the door and closet . Place the other four on the wall behind your new seating position. Now you can at least continue programming while listening to tunes. Make the whole room a station. As opposed to a dual purpose set up. And i would probably lose those cubes and get a set of jbl 306p monitors. And some sort of dac. (Aune x1 perhaps ) sell the peach tree . 

@davekayc Thanks for the time to write up that suggestion.  Your suggestion was something I never contemplated. I will have to let it percolate in the brain. Do you have any opinion of a bookshelf with books as a sound absorber in-between the speakers?

One thing that I am benefiting from today with this configuration is the ability to have my room door open, it makes my room sound bigger.  My room today sounds really good with the KEF LS50's but I want to get better gear in there.

The gear I have in this room will leave very soon and the incoming gear will likely be the much bigger Yamaha NS5000 "bookshelf" + Lyngdorf 3400 (with Room Perfect) + Luxman m900u amp. I will only use the preamp section of the Lyngdorf integrated. I am also considering the Anthem STR preamp with ARC3. So DSP is going to be part of this new system. I was considering putting the electronics, except the amp inside the closet.

This system will hopefully be my second system, with a bigger room available in a year or 2 for the placement of a non-DSP based system or I may even move this Yamaha based system to the future bigger room and ditch the DSP.