Where do you have your rack?

I currently have my rack in a ventilated closet just outside the listening room. After battling mechanical and airborne vibration for years, I have finally won.

The closet is just behind the wall with the speakers, so I have a 15 foot speaker cable run - longer than average, both nothing too extreme. I am very happy with this arrangement, though of course it may not be possible for most folks.

If I had to choose again between placing the equipment between the speakers or placing it on the sidewall, I would choose the sidewall, for the reasons mentioned in Jim Smith's book.

Let me ask you, Tim, when you moved your rack to the side, ala Jim Smith's book, did the sound improve in any way? I've been thinking of doing that also, ubt it would require putting dedicated 20 amp outlets there like I have between the speakers now. If I did that, I'd also build one of those Rives half round diffractors at the middle of the wall behind the speakers. Please tell me your experiences with the side wall placement vs. between, but behind the speakers. My speakers sit about 3 st. in flornt of the equipment rack currently. My system sounds excellent in every way but Jim says that the rack between the speakers is the number one boo-boo in system setup. Thanks, Bob

Let me ask you, Tim, when you moved your rack to the side, ala Jim Smith's book, did the sound improve in any way? I've been thinking of doing that also, but it would require putting dedicated 20 amp outlets there like I have between the speakers now. If I did that, I'd also build one of those Rives half round diffractors at the middle of the wall behind the speakers. Please tell me your experiences with the side wall placement vs. between, but behind the speakers. My speakers sit about 3 st. in flornt of the equipment rack currently. My system sounds excellent in every way but Jim says that the rack between the speakers is the number one boo-boo in system setup. Thanks, Bob

The reason for not placing your rack between the speakers has much more to do with sound than convenience. I get the impression your long interconnects are not as good as your other interconnects. It might be time to upgrade your long interconnect for proper evaluation of your rack placement. I noticed from your system photos you are set up in front of your fireplace. A quick and easy improvement is to close off the openings to your fireplace. Those openings create an echo that will severely mess with your sound.

A few things:

Dorkwad (great alias): it did improve, but my room had so many problems when I made the move that I have now addressed that I'm not entirely sure of the impact. My only real beef is the loss of flexibility and the requirement for a number of long cables (either speaker or interconnect) that can be expensive. I recently renovated this room after a lot of damage which has made the single biggest impact yet. I'll post pictures.

Rrog: I think you are right--it might be time to look at replacing the longer interconnects. At 4m+ they get expensive fast. I do have an absorption panel that I put in front of the fireplace when I'm listening for longer periods of time. It has a huge impact.