all excellent responses and information- YES- the real soundstage while recording or live is much larger than our living rooms, that's why moving speakers APART further, dramatically increases the effect. my speakers are 28' apart and if I could put them 40 feet apart, I would. we did tests at my relative's house out in his back yard, with a high-powered solid state rig. first off, I replaced the speaker wire with the largest diameter I could find, bougth a big spool of it at Radio Shack. cut it in half, and put half that spool on each speaker side- for maximum length. then we put the speakers at their furthest distance that wire would allow. WOW. the biggest soundstage from a home stereo I ever heard and saw in my life. it was like a concert. amazing, and impressive.
#2, yes get rid of anything between the speakers- but I'll take that one step further, simply RAISE the speakers up over everything, using wall shelves specially built to the footprint of your speakers, in each corner of the listening room. presto- nothing between speakers anymore, other than maybe pictures flat against the wall, or a clock. again- dramatic improvement in soundstage, in this case- DEPTH is increased to a high degree. it makes drums on a rock band recording sound like they are set up 15 feet away outside your house.