Speaker positioning: why do audiophiles neglect this so much?

On the subject of placing equipment between speakers, Jim Smith focused more on the visual distraction of this vs. degradation of the sound--he also focuses on this being possibly a location where bass frequencies might be strong and why you need to avoid placing your equipment there--but he did say that if you must place your equipment between the speakers then at least try to place the equipment behind the plane of the speakers.  There are plenty of great listening rooms at th various shows and almost every one has the equipment between the speakers (so you focus on it?)  I've tried several different methods of speaker placement:  Cardas, equilateral triangle (the most recommended here and elsewhere) and Smith's approximately 83% rule where the distance between speakers is 83% of the distance from speaker to listening position.  The latter was the best i found in my room along with some of his other tips about where to locate listening position.  However, i never felt his tips were absolute and he confirmed this when i scheduled a phone call with him to hear his recommendations on addressing an irregularity in my listening room shape.  Speaker position important?  Yes.  Generic?  No

This recording of Pat Bianchi and Pat martino , two of my favorite musicians, fill the room OUT OF THE SPEAKER PLANE,....

If not, this will indicate most of the time not a problem with your gear choice itself, (my audio system is low cost basic one) like most people could think, but a lack in acoustic treatment and especially in acoustic mechanical control of the room...

All my posts here are pointing toward this direction, in spite of ill informed people with no experience in acoustic who think the sound MUST always be BETWEEN the speakers plane save for out of phase gear or distorting reflections...

Here the soundscape is outside the speakers sometines by the left or right and the organ sound fill the room with the guitar in the center.... Listening to it we are like with an headphone in an intimate relation with the sound... It is like this IN MY ROOM....

This intimacy is called in acoustic science " listener envelopment factor" or LEV it is a factor relative to another one called the relative sound source width factor (ASW) These factors rightful ratio LEV/ASW emerge when we learn how to play with the timing of reflections lateral and back one, and also with the location of Helmholtz diffusers in our room, we may learn how create this effect which include the listener in some intimate relation with the sound which does not come from the speaker anymore at all and is no more between the speakers now...

It is not my choice of speakers, or dac, or amplifier that will explain this acoustic phenomenon , no brand name gear publicity is necessary at all here , my gear being basic, only understanding of acoustic, and basic psycho-acoustic can explain and describe it...

Then if someone want to contradict me i will wait for his arguments and not for his insults like from some above ignorant posters...

Reflections can be useful and they are postive when we learn how to control their timing and their RATIO, lateral one and also back reflection in particular, when they are rightfully TIMED with one another by acoustic treatment and mechanical device control with and rightfully timed also with the TWO direct frontwaves coming from each speaker for each ear...

Reme,ber than in a small room loke mine at the speed of sound in each second the waves cross the room  13 times...Meditate the consequence if this fact for psycho-acoustic and acoustic...Acoustic did not consist to buy prefabricated acoustic panels sorry...They are tool only which can help... But tuning a room ask for way more.... The good news is the cost may be peanuts, it was for me...

I am not a gear fetichist but a student of experimental acoustic IN MY ROOM ....

My results are the proof of the acoustic pudding.... Gear fetichism dont explain acoustic, it is the reverse....

😁😊

Do the best you can and then enjoy the gear and the music. How do audiophiles sleep at night suspecting that their system is only 97% of what it could be? How can you stand it?

I guess that is Darwinism at play. The happy, satisfied tribe got wiped out by the angry tribe that took their nice river view. So the angry tribe propagated.

To answer the OP directly, it’s because room treatments is more like terraforming wherever you are stuck, and the angry tribe doesn’t want to terraform, they want what’s over the hill where the happy people live. And when they conquer that, there’s another hill with a happier tribe beyond. We could all use to be reprogrammed to be a little more satisfied and a little less "grass is greener."

Now I'm going to go back to swapping cables and installing my new gear...

Zzzzzzzzzz

A sub-optimal system sounds better than a nagging wife.