Unless you want vastly different speaker lengths it is not always practical to have your equipment rack placed anywhere other than between the speakers. In previous houses I have had the equipment placed at right angles and well to the left of the LH speaker, with different length cables but never noticed any improvement in SQ. I now have a TV on the wall and the speakers well away from front and side walls and the equipment rack between the speakers and it sounds fine to my ancient ears.
Speaker positioning: why do audiophiles neglect this so much?
Went to a recent seminar featuring Jim Smith, well known author of the book "Get Better Sound" and hi fi set up guru.
The basic gist of the discussion was that the most important elements of a high end stereo installation are listening position and speaker positioning, in that order. The actual hardware (speakers, amplifiers, source, cables etc) are of less importance relatively speaking.
Yet it is clear from this web site and it's contents, that set up is discussed much less than the actual hardware.
When I look at the Virtual Systems page on site, I'm estimating that, maybe, 10% of the systems posted are close to well set up. Thus, hardly any of the featured hardware is performing close to it's maximum potential.
Shame, and why is it so? Not sexy enough to talk about system set up in depth? Lack of knowledge? Or is it simply too hard to do and too complex a subject?
Just my 2 cents ...