System Help

"Can the room make that much of a difference?
"

Yes, IMHO, the room should be considered the MOST
important component in your system.

Keep trying with room placement and setup. You will
slowly get it dialed in.

It's a journey not a sprint...

My suggestion would be this: If you presently have the speakers along the 16' wall move them to the 32' wall, or vice-versa. This will definitely affect the bass balance and imaging so it will provide you with a clear impression of which placement works best in that particular room.

Sometimes you can put the speakers across a corner (with the corner in the center of the two speakers and get good results but I would try my first suggestion before trying the speakers across a corner.

Rooms can make all the difference between WOW!! and ho-hum, as you are learning. And if you don't have a good AC power conditioner or power regenerator in your system, I'd suggest that you look into getting one.

No one can say for sure, but from looking at your system, your amps may not be up to the task of running those speakers in a room that big. If you can borrow an amp from a friend or local dealer, that would probably be a good first move. If you can't borrow one, Cable Company has amps to send out for demo.

Beg to differ...

Suggest not considering any gear changes until well after exploring room setup and possibly treatment first.

Start with Cardas Speaker Placement: http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_main.php
You try both ways on long or shorter walls.

Your seating distance should make about an equilateral triangle with the speakers, or experiment with the seat a foot or two further back. Even 6 inch increments can change the way your ears interact with the room. Little strips of tape on the floor at various increments can make it easy to repeat the placement of the speakers & seat. Try a few combos with a couple of hours of listening at each.

Try something absorptive or diffusive at the 1st and 2nd reflection points which are easily found by moving a mirror along the wall until you see each speakers' reflection easily from the sweet spot. These are key locations to avoid glass framed pictures etc. Echo, treble-ringing etc. are what's affected.

Bass traps in the corners on the front wall are quite often a big help. To get an idea, you can drop a couple of rolls of pink fiberglass insulation (you can even keep in the plastic bags) in the front corners. Also try a heavier fabric blanket etc. hung on the wall between the speakers. These temp. steps will give you a "quick & dirty" idea of what proper room treatment will do for you.

Lots of useful threads in the archives here on setup, also in Ethan Winer's forum on Audio Asylum. Cheers,
Spencer