Does having an object inbetween the speakers bad?

The best rule-of-thumb is to ensure your rack's highest component is lower than the midrange driver of your speakers.

Adhering to this general rule should not affect soundstaging. Even if your rack is a bit higher, my hunch is you will still hear no difference.

For starters, trying bringing the speakers further out into the room so that there is at least 5 or 6 ft between the front face of the speaker cabinet and the wall behind the speakers.

-IMO

Thanks . i know I've got to move the TV(sony wega 40 inch) but it weighs over 300 pounds and I am in no shape to budge it.

Having a reflective object, like a TV screen, between speakers is bad for the midrange center soundstaging. Pull speakers out from wall & put a rug or heavy blanket over the reflective object when critically listening.

Everything affects everything. A mega tv of 300+lbs will have some affect. The less you block or absorb the sound the better the results. If things did not affect or produce an effect we would not need to tweak.

I have a HUGE, Guargantuan, massive, behemoth, wooden "entertainment center" between my speakers. It was present one day when I got home from work years ago and to this day I don't remember agreeing to its purchase.... Anyway, "it" was a big reason that my interest in audiophilia waned for several years, thinking that it would be useless to try to get speakers to image the way that I wanted (I heard some old, three box Audio Physic Calderas, and those imaged better than anything I'd heard up to that point). My interest soemhow got piqued by Audiogon listings of some Paradigms (I had Paradigm 9 SE's at the time), and I ended up with Paradigm Studio 100 V3's, purchased at a dealer, who was meticulous in setting them up. They actually managed to image fairly well.

Then I heard the Intuitive Design Summits, had to have them, got them, and the soundstage that they throw is phenomenal, so much so that I posted an Audiogon review about them where I basically went ga-ga over them. (The speakers and the "entertainment center" are pictured in that review.)

So....it's possible to get central imaging even with a huge monstrosity between the speakers. My suspicion is that the imaging would improve still further if the "thing" weren't there between the speakers, however.
-Bill