best position of components in relation to spkers?

It sounds like the opinions are pretty strong in favor of moving gear out from between your speakers. A potential negative of course, is going to a real long RCA cable to do this. I don't want to sidetrack the thread w/ this, as we have all either had experience or read about the variables.
They say under 3-4 meters is Ok, but it also depends on the preamp's ability to drive the longer cable....

Many people seem to just simply position their gear lower, which is IMO,less practical if you are running a turntable.

There is also the option of longer speaker cables. Again,
there are variables involved here too. I would think 12-15
feet would be necessary to make this work, and still look
good. The SC length needed certainly depends on if you run a stereo amp or monos. This setup would allow all gear, including the amps, to be placed on a different wall.

I have heard that Auditorium 23 speaker cables sound does not degrade in long runs. I am not suggesting that this does not hold true w/ other SC manufacturers.

I have my gear including turntable along the left hand wall towards rear of the 12X12 room and use 18' Audioquest cv6 speaker wires.

This setup works great and is the cat's meow!

YMMV.

I'm a very experienced Audiophile and I learned several new tricks fro Jim Smith's book. Getting the rack out of the middle, is a great idea and it really can improve your sound. For excellent inexpensive interconnects try Signal Cable Silver Resolution.

I have been following this thread. The dominant view here seems to be to remove the components from between the speakers. My experience is much different here.

For many years I had the rack on the back wall with only the mono amps (CAT JL3) next to the speakers (Sound Lab A1). The problem was the expensive 10m Purist Dominus IC along the side wall to the amps. And from my experimentation with ICs, the most critical link is from the line stage to the amp(s), not source to the line stage, which is all too often reported here. There is just no way I am going to destroy the 3D in the system by putting a crappy IC here, 1m or 10m. Again my experience is much different here.

As an experiment, I then moved the rack to the side wall. The speakers radiate a lot of energy that made me feel this was not a good idea. If the 13' wide room was wider, I might not have this concern as the speakers would be further from the side walls and thus not beaming toward to the rack.

After repeated suggestions by Arthur Salvatore in emails, I I tried the components between the speakers. This turned out to be the best sound I have had. I bought a pair of 2-shelf stands, 18 inches tall. I placed these between the speakers. With components installed, the height was about two feet tall. I would never put a 5 or 6 foot rack between the speakers but this worked beautifully. As I sit near field, there is much depth behind the speakers which are 6 feet into the room from the front wall. The images of the instruments and musicians are crystal clear.

With this implementation, I can use short ICs that are either not available or affordable in longer lengths. It works for me very well.