Help Total Confusion


I just read where placing your equipment rack between your speakers is a no-no, collapsing sounstage, boomy bass, etc.

My problem is that I don't have a choice. So would it be better to buy a taller, thinner rack, creating more vertical space around my speakers, or a low slung, wider rack, creating more horizontal space around the speakers?

My speakers are monitors (Tyler Acoustic Linbrooks) and all my listening is near field, about 7 to 71/2 feet from listening chair. The speakers are 8 feet apart now and I detect a small hole in the center of the soundstage, so moving them closer an inch or two might be helpful.

I'm almost ready to buy a new rack, but none of the accesible stores will let me give the furniture a trial run, which I find curious because they'll all let me audition components in-home. Thanks so much in advance for your suggestions and comments fellow 'goners.

Dan
tbadder
Thanks for the link, Sean; it was well worth the read! Ben, I'm with you on this one. Room limiations sometimes cannot be avoided, and you just have to live with them the best you can and enjoy the music. I'm seriously thinking about ripping out a major portion of my roof and adding a second floor dedicated HT, but short of that, which would obviuosly come at an enormous cost, I'll have to continue to live with real world room limitations. I don't think anyone who has posted above has argued differently, but it's comforting to know that well-informed folks such as Ben have achieved workable solutions.

One of the puzzling things about the audio hobby in my experience which is admittedly limited, is that if one tried to follow every bit of sage advice in a literal fashion, he would end up with an audio system that would be the equivalent of an Ed Norton golf swing! (For those of you who remember the Honeymooners episode where Ralph and Ed were trying to learn how to swing a golf club simply by reading a book.) Experience teaches, and that's where the link Sean has proved comes in - lots of good ideas to work with.
A single Argent Room Lens, placed about 18" in front of the TV when listening to two channel, will give you depth and stage that you would not have thought possible. Go to Audio Asylum to learn how to make your own for nearly nothing. Don
I have a rack between my speakers also and I have excellent centerfill. The trick is not to let the rack break the vertical plane between the speakers. Move your speakers out from the wall and keep your rack as close to the wall as possible. If you continue to have a hole-in-the-middle then I would further develop your front end and upgrade your cabling.
I have my equipment between my speakers, set back about 2 feet, and I have put a DIY Argent room lens, centered between the speakers, just a few inches in front of the equipment, as Elgordo says, and my soundstage and image focus is awesome. I also have room lenses flanking the outside of each speaker, and one behind the listening chair.
I have a 57" widescreen TV in the middle of my speakers. My speakers are about 2 feet closer to me than my TV. When I completely cover up my TV with a large sheet of duct board, which is made of 1 inch thick fiberglass, my soundstage becomes more transparent / open. There is definitely alot of audio energy coming off the back and sides of speakers. So, the audio rack or TV in the center of the speakers reflects alot of sound.