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

Showing 2 responses by mapman

Definitely away from any magnetic fields created by drivers or other EM fields possibly created by other common household devices. These considertationscan often be more significant than location relative to speakers alone, so do not focus in that exclusively. However, also in a location where sonic vibrations from speakers are minimal if possible. Where that is case by case can vary. Often it will be away from the rear wall used to re-inforce bass levels and also not directly in front of directional speaker designs.

I have similar omnidirectional speakers both in the same room as my gear and in a separate adjacent room connected via in-wall wires. I have a Niles speaker switch to select which speakers play. In my case, I cannot attribute any sonic difference based on location relative to source gear. Both rooms are in the basement and sit on the thinly carpeted concrete foundation, which provides a very vibration free environment for both overall. Isolation from EM fields and sonic vibrations together overall is the key. Speaker location relative to gear alone does not tell the whole story.
I have my gear including turntable along the left hand wall towards rear of the 12X12 room and use 18' Audioquest cv6 speaker wires.

This setup works great and is the cat's meow!

YMMV.