Where do you have your rack?


After reading Jim Smith's book, I moved my rack to the sidewall. There is a lot that I like about it. Easy access to source components and to the volume as long as you run a preamp. But, I feel like the long interconnects are the weakest link in my system and that it does not give me much flexibility.

I'm about to move to an integrated amp and am thinking about moving my rack behind and between my speakers so that I can keep using my best interconnects. Any thoughts/experiences?

Tim
tjnindc
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.
Tim

Have a look at my system on 'Done for now'.

I spent a long time moving everything around to optimise the sound. Without a doubt, moving the rack to a side wall makes a tremendous improvement to soundstage, imaging and resolution. I had a 50" plasma and AV rack between my speakers at one time and was amazed at the improvement once I seperated the hi fi and AV systems and moved the AV to another room.

My interconnects are 3m long and the speaker cables are 3.6m.

Steve
Steve:

It looks like we are dealing with a lot of the same dynamics. I just posted a picture of my renovated room, but yours have given me some ideas (I'm not sure why I still want the amps between the two speakers--seems like I could have my amps anywhere). I have been slowly adding (bulky) room treatments. I like the look of your treatments.

I think I'll keep my rack where it is. Focus on other things.

Tim
Tim, Can I make a recommendation? Your room is not balanced. The left side has bookcases with plenty of diffraction and the right has uncovered windows (reflective). Remove the room treatment and install some window coverings to try to get some kind of balance.
Attached to Mrs Bless..............lol.

I have heard (can't confirm the truth in that) that having only the stereo in a room will yield the best results for ones hi-fi sound, even a telephone/tv affects the sound in a detrimental way, apparently.
For me, my system sounded the best in a room on its own, speakers either side of a bay window with solid brick wall, thick carpet, heavy velvety curtains, and its own dedicated power circuit.