Variations in equipment and rooms make it impossible to generalize. I've found the best sound comes from locating speakers and listener ala Cardas http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring and treating the room with, at a minimum, bass traps in the corners and broadband absorption at the first reflection points, sidewalls and ceiling.

It's all about proportion and first wave reflection.  The Cardas link is a great start.  Also, keep your listening seat off the back wall or arrange the setup so that room openings are to the rear of the listening position.  A completely closed room exacerbates room modes and muddies up the midrange and upper bass.

My experience is that the distance between speakers should be slightly less than the distance from your ears to each speaker.

I currently have my speakers about 7 feet apart and listen about 8-9 feet away; that works very well.

If your listening position were 10-12 feet away, they should be 8-9 feet apart, etc.

hcsunshine wrote:

i have always heard that you should have your speakers "at least 6 ft apart". now i'm wondering if more seperation means a better sound or no. mine must have been at 7 ft apart cause i just moved them in a lil closer and just measured and it's now 6 ft 10 inches from center of woofer to center of woofer. sounds a lil better too. wondering now if i should move them in to exactly 6 ft apart?

Like commsysman I've found a speaker separation of less than the listening distance to sound best.  I've found that a spacing of 70% of the listening distance is a good place to start.