TV and/ or system rack between speakers...

Donbellphd, moving the TV back 15 inches and covering it with something thick or padded will probably help you get some depth back. You'd have to try it to see how much--and also to see how much of the screen you could still see !

Your second question is an interesting one. For me the critical point is the position of my (quite deep but not too wide) 16:9 CRT TV with respect to the front plane of the speakers. I have not tried substituting a shallower TV unit to see if it makes any difference, though.

In its forward position my TV is about 4 inches back from the speakers' front baffles. Backed off, this distance is about thirty inches.

In my experience, a tall vertical rack and/or big TV between --or just behind-- the plane of the speakers is the fourth cause of getting mediocre sound from high-end speakers (poor imaging). The third cause is speakers placed too close to the front wall/sidewalls (boom, no depth, spurious images). The second cause is speakers placed non-symmetrically in relation to rear wall and sidewalls (wrong soundstage, deformed images). The first cause --in order of importance-- is a squarish room or otherwise bad room (reinforced room modes with nasty, non-equalizable nulls). I understand WAF and all that, but I think of the wasted money when I see so many pictures of wonderful systems with all of the above. Sorry for the rant.

Vladimir, that was very helpful. Thanks. Because of your post, I`ve decided to place the speakers along the long wall and find a new location for the tv. Hell, I might sell the damn thing and just keep the one tv in the bedroom.

You're welcome.