Where is your equipment placed?

It's not between the speakers.

Hopefully not in the room with your speakers. The acoustic energy flying around any room will wash over your equipment no matter where in the room it is placed, no matter what isolation devices you use. A naked room is best, you and the speakers. If you cannot get it out of the room construct some acoustic 'shields' around the equipment, especially the turntable.

You know how when sometimes you type lol, but you don't actually laugh out loud? That actually made me laugh out loud, and I still am laughing. Freaking hilarious! Great correlation! Now back to where you keep your valuables...

My rack is between the speakers. The rack is just a bit over 2 feet tall and has minimal equipment. I'm guessing this doesn't affect the sound as much as some of those large racks do.
I'd like to try a different placement but the room is too small. Maybe stick it in the closet to the right.

hmmmmmm

First where we live , then where the equipment is placed.............. like a map or easier to just leave it at the door ..lol

Viridian, that's where I shop for clothes and groceries to save money for stereo equipment! If I had only dug a little deeper...

Hifiharv, thanks for your insight and reinforcing what I observed!

Of course you can hear a difference. Equipment placed in between the speakers, like alot of people do, will have a big effect on the sound. The shape, height, material, closeness of components all affect this. This is an area that should be left empty to "tune" to your liking with room treatments, or even art or statuary. You can get good sound by accident with your rack here, but generally, it is not the best place. Unfortunately, it is the most convenient location since it requires the shortest cable lengths. Everybody does it! You might try this and find the sound gets worse. That is because the rack and components were reflecting the center image right to you, giving the illusion of the singer right there. Without a rack here you might need something else, something "controllable" to fulfill this function. I use Michael Green's "Room Tunes" to tune the empty space between the speakers and the sound is holographic, even with moderate components. Takes alot of experimenting with position to get it just right, but, WOW, when done.

I would bet that your left speaker is close to the left wall or some object reflecting sound to your right ear.