re: having an ottoman in front of ewe, it wery vell *could* have a detrimental efect, but i'd tink not, if it were small-n-low enuff. any coffee table i've seen in front of a listening position has *always* had a wery noticeable effect on the sound, & it's always been bad. on more than one occasion, i've gone to a friends' house, spied the coffee-table in front of the *sweet-spot*, immediately proceeded to remove said coffee table to the consternation of my friend, only to have him, w/in minutes, agree that there was a noticeable improvement in soundstaging/imaging w/said offending coffee-table removed. i've often wondered about the possibility of making a table w/different widths of slats, similar those rpg diffusors, to break up the reflections...
doug s.