Turntable Placement Between Speakers with Short Interconnect?

Another note, yes my stand for my Diablo’s is a heavy wood stand that is very low and very wide. It’s less than 1.5 ft tall not including the gear itself. I’ve always thought my imaging performance was good, but maybe it would be better without the stand there. Either way the gear is well below the mid drivers.

My room is also huge, as my house is open concept. Ceiling is vaulted and high as well, 12 ft at the peak. Room is about 900 sq feet, but the area my system is in has a tall island that acts as a partial wall on the left side. In other words the large room is broken up a it.

You're over analyzing this.  Place your turntable on a sturdy platform close to your integrated amp.  If that means it's between the loudspeakers, then so be it.  This is not the perfect solution, but it will give you wonderful sonic results.  Just keep the equipment stands low to the floor.

onhwy61 that is music to my ears and hopefully yes I am overanalyzing things, which actually come to think of it is a large part of this hobby which seldom yields results.  Usually just a matter of trying things out, which is why I think I will just start with a Pro-ject Debut simply so I can be confident in the setup before I take the big plunge…

Okay, I’ve found a way to make the left side of my left speaker work for my turntable location (3 ft from speaker), and this is NOT a corner. Here’s my plan based on all of your feedback, to facilitate placement on the left side of my speakers:

• I will pick up a separate phono module
• I will pick up a 14 ft balanced interconnect to go to my Gryphon’s balanced inputs

From what everyone has said, it seems to me this setup WOULD be more ideal, albeit at an added cost. So my questions now, are:

• Phono module: What phono module to pair with a VPI Prime 21+?
• Phono power cord: Is yet another fancy power cord for the phono module warranted (I have AQ Hurricane source cables on my other source equipment including for the future VPI TT)?
• 14 ft Balanced interconnect: I’ve not had any experience with XLR cables before. How much does quality matter and do I need to go through the lengthy and intensive cable testing process I went through for my speaker cables, which was very worthwhile? Or does it matter less with XLR cables?

Thanks again All.

PS:  Consider budget blown given the above.  It's okay, just means I'll need to wait a bit. 

@nyev 

It's important not to obsess too much.

There's nothing wrong soundwise putting the TT between the speakers.  Remember they have minimum output 90º to the sound axis, so this is actually an area of minimum interference from sound waves.

There's nothing wrong with an integrated amp either.  It isn't necessary to run monoblocs so that the amps can be right behind the speakers - indeed the amps like to see a bit of load from speaker wires.  Anyhow, if your speakers are 10 feet apart, and few are much more, then there will be only 5 foot runs of cable.

Connect the TT to the amp with short wires, this is essential.  So put the amp under the TT.  Although a wood stand can be heavy, whatever material floor you have it is worth having a lot more mass.  My system stands on a support made of big pieces of marble and stone.  All in all it must weigh nearly 1000 pounds.  That won't vibrate or go anywhere.  I have a concrete slab floor and the marble base is spiked to it.

I run my whole system balanced from cartridge to power amp.  But with the layout I recommend above, you won't need 14 feet x2 of expensive interconnect, so no wait required.