Anotherspeaker placement question (distance measurements)

@bigtwin  , I cannot and will not try to speak for gdhprentice, and I hope he does offer his explanation so I can learn if what I think is correct  Anyway,  I remember back in the 90's when I had a prescription to Stereophile, I had read in one of their articles that keeping the area between & behind the speakers clean made for better  imaging (I assume center imaging) & I thought I remember reading that it could have an effect on the soundstage.

But with all that typed, a lot of what I thought I remembered learning from Stereophile gets routinely debunked on the forums.  Meaning maybe I misinterpreted what I was reading or maybe there is more than one way to skin a cat & the way they wrote about it in Stereophile was the wrong method.

Anyway, hopefully @ghdprentice  will weigh in on that.   

As far as stuff between the speakers. In general, yes it usually screws up the imaging. It is unfortunately, like everything in audio, somewhat dependent. I had apogee ribbon speakers for many years… for some reason the equipment rack did not make much of a difference if any. But all the other speakers I have had, definitely matters. Not subtle at all.

First of all, typically, to develop the capabilities of speakers soundstaging you first have to get the toe-in, rear wall distance, and rear dampening correct… then hopefully your soundstage will go beyond your speakers, left and right. Then you work on depth.
 

Typically, an undampened rear wall, will either cause confusion in the imaging or present the rear limit the of the sound stage. If you add dampening… I have always liked thick wool oriental carpets. The dampening changes from almost none (a sheet), a bit (blanket), to good… a thick, heavy, tightly woven wool rug… like mine (hold your breath… these things are expensive… hence people use other stuff).

Anyway, so in my current room, the sound stage extended from my speakers (front) to the wall without the carpet (wall is plasterboard, 2x4s, with concrete and solid earth behind that ((yes… I am really lucky)) ), about 4.5’. Adding the carpet.. the soundstage goes into the wall two or more feet. Somewhat recording dependent of course. Put my audio rack there… and there is a gaping hole where the equipment rack is. Not a subtle thing. A hole… no sound in there. I am sure I could bring in a neophyte and point out all the characteristics of my system, and point out the hole and they would be able to “not hear it”, easily during the first session.

All of this is contingent on doing the work to get your system set up correctly. It is also dependent on your speakers and associated equipment, but probably less so than many think. I am pretty sure you could put a system together for $2K speakers and $1K components and craft outstanding imaging… probably less. Most “decent” equipment is capable of great things in the right hands. One must be patient and listen. 

immathewj

I just added speaker placement measurements to my Virtual system photos 

which also has the room measurements .  The manufacturer of my speakers came

with basic recommendations but then one has to deal with the room

measurement .  Start with an equilateral triangle and let your ears do the walking.