New to this. How do I stack my stuff?

kahlenz, I have done just that. The amp is too big and heavy for it so it will stay on the floor on the feet I made for it.

As far as speaker position, I spent a lot of time last night moving them around (and I am sore for the effort). There isn't room to move them way out from the side walls but I found a bit of a sweet spot moving them out a ways from the back wall. Any further than that an bass seemed to fall off more than I wanted.

I also used some of the online speaker tests and they were okay. I had my wife listen to them (her hearing is better than mine) and she confirmed. So from the standpoint of speaker position I feel it is optimized as much as reasonably possible.

wloeb, thanks for the link. I may consider this at a later time but for now I'm probably not going to spend any more on this system. For those who don't remember, I more or less inherited this system for free. I am not an audiophile. I got it to replace a low end system that was failing and out of curiosity. So I have nothing in this and am not in pursuit of perfection. I'm mostly working on the easy and inexpensive ways to maximize what I have in the room that I have. I do appreciate all the excellent advice though. It has made a big difference and I'm becoming an audiophile even though I never had the intent to.

From the Urban Dictionary:

audiophilia nervosa

Audiophilia nervosa describes the anxiety resulting from the never-ending quest to obtain the ultimate performance from one's stereo system by means of employing state-of-the-art components, cables, and the use of certain "tweaks."

Although the goal is supposedly to achieve maximum appreciation of the music, those afflicted with this condition are merely obsesed with their electronics.

Sample script:

"Todd had spent well over $100,000 in speakers,monoblock amplifiers, fiber optic cables, Shakti stones, pre-amolifiers, and other equipment and tweaks. And yet he still wasn't convinced that Diana Krall's voice sounded "silky" enough".

"Todd was in deep denial concerning his audiophilia nervosa, and his wife was on the verge of calling a divorce lawyer."

n80

Glad that you and your wife are hearing differences, that's the beginning :)

For the sake of ease and simplicity.....my rather involved and lengthy discussion last night on room treatments  aside, I would suggest treating only the first reflection points in your room. These will be wherever the sound bounces directly off some flat surface, wall or ceiling to your preferred listening position. Have your wife sit in that spot while you move a mirror around the room walls. Any place where she can see either of your speakers in the mirror is a prime spot for treatment and there will likely only be a handful at most, which makes it fairly simple.......As for the ceiling, I believe that you stated they are fairly high, 10 feet? That's good and makes it a bit less important than the walls. A single panel  or possibly two, two feet by two feet, on each side wall somewhere between where you sit and the speakers......the mirror will tell you where.......will make an immediate improvement in what you hear and it's a start to better sound.........If you decide to try this, center the panels at the same height from the floor as the mid range and tweeters in your speakers......I understand that you are not an audiophile, but no one is until they catch the "bug"! LOL

As for any other tweaks, special footers, cables, etc. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about that at this point, as these are likely to make less difference in what you hear than playing with your set up, as you have done, and perhaps adding a handful of panels to the reflection points I just mentioned...........As for the panels themselves, if you pick an attractive print at the fabric to to cover them, they can actually look pretty nice..........Think of them as framed "wall art", or functional pictures. That's how I described them to the ladies at the fabric store when they asked what I was making, whom I would have quickly lost if I started going into the whole room acoustics thing.

Enjoy.

Thanks shadowcat. The first reflection point on my left is curtains. On my right it is a 6x6' expanse of brick behind a large couch. That would be the main area that would need attention.

My wife is not going to go for panels, even decorative ones. But, as mentioned before, I bet she would allow me to hang one of her smaller oriental rugs there and probably on the other similar sized brick area that is closer to my listening chair. They make rods for hanging rugs so that they hang about an inch from the surface of the wall. Probably not optimum sound deadening but probably not bad either.

n80, I agree that you should hang something appropriate for the room's decor.
  My system is in my living room and I have a large tapestry hanging. It's very effective for improving mid and top-end response.