Main speaker placement- fundamentally wrong?

When i first noticed some tinnitus in my right ear I messed around with cupping my ears with my hands and other things.  Just wanted to try and get a handle on what was going on.  For me, cupping just makes things louder and more irritating - YMMV.  But, I suggest that if you think cupping makes your system sound better then you need to rethink your system, including room acoustics.

Or, maybe something like this? 

If you noticed almost all animal's ears are on the side of their head. evolution made them that way for a reason, most likely for location sensing of predators and pray. I do not think evolution was worried about your stereo separation etc. Reason cupping your hands around your ears seems to sound better to you is due to the fact you're getting more sound information and at a higher volume, similar to a horn strapped to the side of your head. Louder is not better just louder.

God designed your head for multichannel audio, not stereo.

Evolution designed our head and ears for good source localization. I have my speakers up front to best mimic observing a musical performance.