[Ronno6]

My theater room is 14' wide, with a 103" wide projection screen (including border. I'm placing my A/V3 speakers at the sides of the screen border, or about 28" to centerline from the side walls. I've ported out the front to allow placing the speakers as close to the foront wall as possible. What I need to know is how much distance to allow in front of the speaker before allowing furniture to project out into the room. I want to build the equipment rack approximately 30 to 36" ahead of the speaker, but the rack will only be about 24" to 30" high, and protrude from the wall 24". This will not be in the direct path of the speaker, but would still reflect sound waves. Will this be a problem?
I've pestered Danny enough with my questions. Time to get feedback from the Forum.

[S Clark]

I seriously doubt that it will make any noticeable difference. However, if you are worried about it, make a cardboard mock up, put it in position, and listen for degradation.

[Loftprojection]

I have a very similar setup as yours.  I ported my A/V-3 identical to Danny's plan so had to position them about 12" out from the front wall.  This week I just finished my new equipement rack.  The previous one was  an extremely cheap TV rack on wheels and it was positioned about 5 inches in front of my right A/V-3 and barely an inch to its side.  My new rack is narrower and I was able to position it about 10 inches in front and 4-5 inches to it's side.  Well it definitely improved the soundstage/imaging on my A/V-3 and mids, voices and highs are a bit more clear/defined.  Now, what I don't exactly know is if this improvement in sound came from the fact that there is a bit more space between the rack and the A/V-3 or if it's because the new rack is built with damping in the shelvings where the previous one was just a little scrap thing on wheels!  I have a feeling it's the rack itself and not the position, I might be wrong.  My new rack is based on this design:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/flexye.html

Hope this helps a bit.

[Ronno6]

Thanks for the input so far. The Flexye rack looks pretty interesting. Maybe the lack of a solid side surface facing the direction of the A/V3 provides higher transparency? Plus, the various surfaces presented the speaker by the different equipment diffuses the reflections. Or, maybe just muddles things up? If I make a cabinet that presents a solid plane to the speaker, possibly sound absorbing treatment on that face would be in order.
Further ideas and comments will be appreciated.