best position of components in relation to spkers?


According to Jim Smith's book, "Get Better Sound," one of mantras he repeats over and over is the negative sonic effects of having your electronics positioned in between your speakers. At present my Fisher 500c and CDP are on a rack positioned between and somewhat behind (perhaps a foot or two) my actual speakers (Vandersteen 2ce's). I tweaked my system ad nauseum and the position of the speakers in relation to the room, etc. has resulted in what I consider quite satisfying sound. However, according to Jim, even with much cheaper speaker cable at longer runs, if I were to place my component rack on a side wall my overall system sound would improve significantly. Anyone tried this? Thanks for any insights!
lincnabby
I have had the best sound with my equipment on the side wall. While using mono amplifiers behing the speakers with short (1 meter) speaker cables and 25' interconnects.

I agree with Elizabeth, it just sounds better. The music is more involving with an across the board improvement.

This is especially true with turntables which I have found to sound their best 2/3 to 3/4of the way down the side wall from the speakers.
I agree with keeping the equipment from being positioned between the speakers. I have used the side wall in the past and in my new apartment I have the sources and preamp in another room and drilled a hole in the wall to run the interconnects to the amp in the listening room.
I have found the best position to be with the equipment behind me. This also allows for similar sound treatment on both side walls.
RL&C as well as dielectric absorbance constants are what govern our selection of connection wire (wifi is a whole new paradigm). These parameters are listed and measured per distance. The lowest total numbers are what we seek which demands the shortest lengths. The shortest distance is a straight line between two speakers with electronics' connectors on that line. Good for the electronics, bad for the illution of imaging and sound staging in the accoustic domain. Imaging and soundstaging are a byproduct of low level resolution BOTH electrical and accoustic. Having electronic componants between speaker drivers is destructive because they upset the propagated sound and thus upset and contaminate low level accoustic display. It is simply a case of componants' accoustic reflections. It becomes obvious that componants with big and flat faceplates perpendicular to the listening position are to be avoided. My solution to this dilema is a simple one indeed. All that is needed is a way to minimise or eliminate reflections from componant front panels. Accoustic foam or just a terrycloth bath towel over face plates is all that is needed to reduce this accoustic harmonic distortion. I use black to remove VISUAL contamination, but that's another topic.

May powdered sugar fall gently upon your ears this evening.

Lester
I have noticed a worthwhile improvement when the rack is between the speakers, but five or six feet closer to the wall. Obviously not always an option. I also leave the rack door open 45 degrees to reduce reflections. My mono blocks are also almost adjacent to the speakers, but set back three feet and angled inward somewhat to avoid perpendicular. You might try turning your rack 45 degrees to see if that does anything for you.

It would interesting (but expensive) to try moving everything to the back wall.

What do you think of the book.so far? I already know everything worth knowing about high-end system setup, but I'm tempted to check out this book anyway;)