what kills soundstage depth?

Jimmy,

The equilateral triangle is most useful for mixing or mastering. If you want a more 'realistic' presentation then I prefer speakers facing forward (not toed in) and about 2 feet apart for 3 foot listening, 4 feet apart for 6 foot back listening, and 8 feet apart for 12 foot back listening. The further back the more natural and less like headphones it will sound - however you need correspondingly bigger space as you need at least 6 feet open space behind the listener and if you place speakers 8 feet apart then you need a room that is at least 16 feet wide.

Whatever you do DO NOT sit with your head or couch up against a wall - this is the single worst thing you can do in any listening room - if you cannot hear the damage done to audio from sitting at a wall then you probably need not waste money on audio gear. I see that you have a seat closer to the middle of he room than your couch - I assume you hear the degradation from sitting at the couch and use this seat for critical listening?

Shadorne-
Yes. That is what the rocking chair is for. Came to the same conclusion on that issue.$15 garage sale rocking chair has been biggest improvement so far. At some point I might get a more comfortable low back chair that is spouse approved but this works for now.
I will play with your ratios and see what happens.
Thx!

Shadorne
changed to the configuration that you outlined. It does get rid of the headphone effect. I still feel like the presentation is 2 dimensional but at least it is not right up in my face. I think that I will try pulling the speakers way out in to the room temporarily in a completely non wife approced manner and see if that dosent create more space.
I may not be able to get what I want with these speakers. I heard some maggies at a dealer a few weeks back and even though they were a foot and a half or so off of the back wall and there was stuff in between them, they produced a soundstage that seemed to extend a few feet behind the back wall. It was quite a trick. I just dont want them in my living room.

A dipole type radiation pattern will increase your sensation of depth due to midrange energy being reflected off the back wall.

You could also play with rake if you haven't yet. Raise the front of the speaker half an inch to start and move it up or down according to what you hear.

I haven't listened to a box speaker yet that didn't need some kind of rake adjustment to get the sound right.