strange effects from system rearranging..

It's good that you like the sound of your system with its new setup, but it's hard to answer the question in the last sentence of your post. If I read your post correctly, you are apparently sitting only 3 feet from your speakers. Boy, talk about nearfield listening! At that distance, I'd think the tweeters might sound a little "hot", but, like I said, if it sounds good to you, that's what matters.

You describe what is probably just great sound from an unusually close listening position. If your speakers are small monitors this could well be hog heaven. However, if your speakers are full range floor standers you may not be far enuf back for the multiple speakers to intergrate properly.

Well maybe its 5 feet, but its close. I was listening in the dark. My speakers are toed in so the image is behind the speakers up on the wall. I sit in an ikea lounge chair which I move into position when I want to listen. This creates a problem becaues sometimes its hard to get the same seating position as the last time. My system is in my bedroom so there is lots of junk around me. I think this contributes to the difficulty in getting the perfect listening position.

I too am a little confused by your description - if you're so close to the plane of the speakers (or especially to the speakers themselves - I'm not sure which you mean), and the tweeters are aimed a foot in front of you, the speakers must either be very close together or very toed-in. The long wall can often be better than the short wall for getting the speakers away from the sidewalls, but it sounds like you have one of them closer to a corner than the other, which would tend to make the response uneven.

In any case, a typical listening arrangement would be a roughly equilateral triangle or slightly longer, with the 'sides' being at least 5ft. or more, and moderate toe-in. A 'nearfield' set-up would ideally place both the speakers (small two-ways) and the listener well out into the room, away from all walls and close to each other, but this is not the usual set-up, especially in in a room that is not a dedicated listening room.

Of course, do whatever sounds good to you, but do try to keep in mind what sounds natural as well, since a lot of weird effects could be induced by unorthodox placement, any of which might be interesting or even enjoyable without being accurate or satisfying in the long-term. Since you don't say what "disappointed" you about the sound before you moved everything, I will infer from your results that it may have been bass-shy and unfocused in your previous set-up, but neither is 'surround-sound' verging on headphone-style the normal perspective. I'd listen for a while longer, and then keep playing around with it to see if you can do better.

In general, I would suggest using closer front-wall/speaker proximity to effect bass reinforcement if needed, but to stay as far away from the side-walls and corners as is practical, and try to make the positioning of the speakers in the room fairly symetrical for both left and right, with toe-in not exceeding aiming straight at the ears and speaker separation not exceeding the listening distance. If possible, try using some music recorded with a natural perspective rather than close-mic'ed to double-check your best speaker and listening positions.

Apartment life sucks, but Ill be stuck living in one for a while. Before I had the current set up the speakers were set-up along the short wall with the room divided into thirds. I could only sit about 10 feet away with a damn bed in front of me. There were too many reflections with the walls and furniture. The sound was bright and the bass was thinner. I cant seem to get the exact seating position so that wraparound effect is lost, but the imaging is still good. The right speaker is closer ro the wall because of all the aforementioned crap in the room. It sounds better than it does before and Im so close the reflections are cut down.