Fraim Placsement

It does sound better if the system is not between the speakers, and from a personal perspective I don't like staring at the system like a Naim shrine. But many people are happy with the system between the speakers, and life is full of compromises. One thought - with a super system such as yours, you really should be using dedicated mains, so you can install it wherever you like. 

Yes ideally the system should not be between the speakers. But I suspect the gain you will get from facilitating the use of SL speaker cables will far outweigh the slight downside of having the system between your speakers. This is exactly what I have done, not that I had any real possibility of having my Fraim stack to the side of the speakers.

Just make sure the speakers are as far away from your Fraim stack as possible and as the wall is 16ft, there should be a reasonable gap between Fraim and each speaker.

With a system like yours I would also recommend a full SL loom with the IC to follow next (assuming you don't already have one of these) after the SL speaker cables. That is as far as I have got so far and it really is quite amazing what these mere bits of wire bring to a system. There really seems to be synergy between the SL IC and SL speaker cables.

I have not had a chance to have a dedicated mains installed due to an impending house move. But as you appear to be moving home, I would echo HH's recommendation. It really doesn't cost very much.

Good luck.

We compromise. Just put it where it's convenient.

But dedicated mains is really a must. SuperLumina speaker cables will really open up those Ovators.

Also if your NDS is close to a LAN socket you can use a fancy Ethernet cable AudioQuest or Chord is a popular choice.

Ours is to the side, it makes speaker cable expensive but then a good long run (9m for us) of NACA5 is supposed to sound better. Naim enjoy the sound of carefully collected coppers clinking in the bank vault... It also means that everything's to hand. The down side is that any transformer hum is closer to you and more audible. Of what materials is the floor made?

How does having your boxes between the speakers impact on the sound? Is it a vibration issue? 

That was the general thought - soundwaves from speakers causing vibrations.

Having 'stuff' between the speakers seems to impact on the sound, whether it be the system, a TV or furniture. It seems to make the sound less open. This is far more significant with wall hugging speakers, and probably makes no or little difference when the speakers sit well forward of the system. So much depends on the room of course - if the speakers sit either side of a fireplace, as in so many uk homes, having the system between them is not really an option. 

Hence the decoupling steps taken in powerlines and SL cables and the suspended circuitry in upper end equipment like the 552DR.....hopefully with these, placement is less of an issue and putting your kit between your speakers is less of a compromise. Good luck!

Speaking with my physicist's / electronics engineer's hat on, I suspect the impact on SQ is more to do with diffraction of the sound waves rather than vibration coupling to the electronics. Imagine what happens to ripples on a pond if they hit an obstacle and you'll get the picture. My view is that it's OK to put the electronics or other 'stuff' between the speakers provided that the fronts of the speakers are forward of any such objects. If the speakers are positioned with toe-in, then they would need to be further forward such that the objects in between them are behind the planes of the speaker fronts.

Of course, vibration coupling could have an effect but that would also apply if the electronics are placed to one side of the speakers. In either case, I think what is important is the sound pressure level at the location of the electronics.

David