Placement of Components

+1 @blisshifi

Basically, my concern is that using a pair of cheapish long run XLRs in order to have my components placed on a side wall is creating a bottle neck in my system.

Doubtful. It will put a bottleneck, instead, in the cash flow from your wallet to the cable dealers.

Try cables made with Neutrik XLRs and Mogami W2549. Easy to find from any pro audio shop (I use ProAudioLA) or from World’s Best Cables online. They sound better (more neutral) to me than the few expensive "boutique" cables I’ve tried -- and they are very cheap by audiophile standards.

I expect that moving the gear from the front wall will improve imaging.

The trouble with getting your question answered is that people will respond to it based on their experience with their equipment in their rooms and not on yours. There are no absolutes and your situation will be unique to your situation. Some speakers insist on being the stars of the room and others prefer, or at least don't mind, a lot of company. The only way to tell for sure is to try various combinations and use your ears to decide what works best for you. 

Hello bgchz!  Is the Intel on the other side of the wall from your equipment? If so, turn it on and off while you are listening and see if it makes a difference. It might. A 25 foot run of balanced cable is no big deal. Pro sound outfits run 100 foot lengths of the stuff commonly. I've put systems in two auditoriums and have used very long runs between mixers and power amps (which are ALWAYS near the speakers with short speaker cables). Happy diagnosing!

bigchz- your choice in gear/present location, by description is proper.

 "Bottleneck" is only in your head from reading  too much audio forum suggestions/advice.

@aewarren,

I agree with you. I definitely depends on the speakers and their pattern of dispersion. I had a running battle with georgehifi when he was still on this site. He said that it was a no-no under any circumstances to have the rack between the speakers, and I said that in my particular case, I was using horn speakers whose dispersion pattern could not even interact with the rack that is between them. 

I think that in some cases it is a problem, although I never noticed a problem even with ordinary direct radiating speakers, but I think that the reason that some people imagine it to be a problem is because they think that the gear is getting in the way of the sound waves that are creating the "image" when in fact the image is not being created where the physical rack is, but at your ears, even though you perceive it to be at the rack location.

My belief is that individuals should try it before they just believe out of hand that it won't work for them.