Where to locate Equipment?

The best location for a component rack is in front of the house by the curb. Be sure to use Craig's List or it may be there a while.

Its not. But if ever someone says anything once, and it gets repeated, then before you know it everyone is saying it and convinced it must be true because.... someone said it.

Everyone knows the advantages of having nothing between the speakers. It is on paper totally the way to go. What I realized a long time ago however is it comes at a very steep cost. Speaker cables and/or interconnects must be the highest possible quality you can afford. But we all have our limitations. No matter what level you are at, it should be obvious that you are not going to be able to afford as high quality wire at 10m as you can at 1m. You can dance around this all you want, and believe you me they will. But it just ain’t happening.

I have seen (and heard) the results first hand. The truth is the advice to put everything off to the side with nothing in between is perfectly fine - in theory. In practice however, different story.

Also even in practice there is more to it than just sound quality. There is also room decor, and practical considerations like are you willing to bend over and step over cables and stuff like that. Stuff no one ever talks about in the advice books. Stuff like that is my stock in trade. All the stuff the others miss.

This is my solution. Take the info and use it as you will. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367