Speaker Placement/new component

No. To truly evaluate any changes in your system, leave everything else unchanged. The differences between components is often very subtle and these changes can easily be overwhelmed by even minute changes in speaker position. After you have thoroughly familiarized yourself with the changes wrought by the new component, then you might have to make some minor changes in speaker setup.

Yes, I second HWY in that you should familiarize yourself with the new sound "before" you experiment with speaker position. Otherwise there are too many vaiables to deal with at once (for me anyway). Also,if you have to power down components when switching out gear you will want to wait until the system is steady again. I just wasted a lot of energy by being impatient and not following this simple concept recently.

no. speaker placement/alignment is much more dependent upon room characteristics than on the electronics driving them. once you find the "ideal" placement, it should remain the same for virtually all upgrades you make on the rest of the system. but then, i know of some folks who still adjust the vta for every lp they play!

I concur with Onhwy61 completely.