Thiel Owners

@cascadesphil

Have you tried the rack on a side wall (maybe with amp on the floor between the speakers) or pulling the speakers more into the room, away from the rack?
Could make a difference in imaging.

Don't have any side walls (or even a back wall - there's a small portion of a back wall where the fridge is behind it in the kitchen).  To the right of the right speaker is basically a whole wall triple sliding glass door (covered by window treatment).  I already noted the space is open on the left side (foyer by the front door and dining room and no walls separating them from the living room).  It's an integrated AV system, so that also makes a difference on speakers placement and why the rack was custom built to my design the way it is..  The speakers image great where they are.  I've had them back a bit more and forward a bit more as well and they are best where the current listening chair is via listening and measurement.  The space behind the listening chair has several feet behind it and is open to the kitchen via a half wall.  I have a sound treatment sitting on top of the half wall separating the kitchen.

Given some of the recent posts about cable upgrades, I wonder if you notice that the "larger" the system, the more apparent the difference makes.  For example, if you have small monitors in a small room vs. a large system such as a real four way speakers in a large area room, any upgrade such as cables will make more of a difference.  

Let's take this analogy.  If you have two digital pictures with different resolution, says one is 0.3 megapixel and one is 7megapixel, and zoom them on to two large computer screens, the difference in quality will be very apparent and the 7megapixel will have superior picture quality vs. the .3megapixel.  But now if you display these two same pictures on very small computer monitors, the difference is not quite apparent and it is related to the picture resolution.

Now back to audio system, the larger the system will expose the quality of the equipment better because the sound will have to be projected in a larger air volume vs. a small systems.  The difference will be amplified in a large system in similar way with pictures.  I think that's why different people will perceive the same set component differently and some say the difference is significant while others may say the difference is minimal.  From personal experience, I used to have a small system in a small room and it was hard for me to tell the difference, but now I have a much larger living room and much more high end system and any differences from different components are very easy to tell.  Not only that, any difference when the system not fully warmed up is also very easily to tell.

Of course we have to consider the affects of "subjectivity", but what I said above plays a significant roll in how the sound is perceived.  

cascadesphil

Beautiful room and system.

Happy Listening!

Some components and speakers are also just more sensitive to changes.  I used to make virtually all of my cables (I probably have some of them in back-up systems and I have made them for others - didn't set out to do it but after they heard it, I agreed to do it at cost of materials).  Sometimes I'd make something and marvel at the difference it made in one system and then struggle to figure out why there was almost no difference in another.  Much of course depends on the room as well (it is so often the most overlooked thing).  I've had a one-third octave RTA for many years (and also now that computers have come so far I have Audio Tools on the Phone and iPads along with a calibrated mic as well as Windows 10 music servers in other systems with REW and a USB mic) and doing changes/movements in mine and other systems has helped me evaluate things better.  Of course everyone has different tastes and priorities as well (and there's nothing wrong with that).