Getting to grips with the acoustics of your listening space

[perfectionist]

Sure no problem. By the way that old gramophone on top of the fire place is a cool piece, I wouldn't mind having one of those, although having said that i wouldn't know where to put it.

I unfortunately didn't get decent bass from the ATC's when they were placed well into the room and as such I had no choice but to move them closer to the rear wall

Sorry but now I'm a bit confused, are you having bass issues?
If you're happy with your bass response then you should rather be looking into your first reflection points. Oh and if you had to see the response on a graph I'm pretty sure after that you wouldn't be happy because you will definitely have peaks and nulls with your current placement.
Anyways sorry going off topic, first order refections should always be the first thing one needs to tame as this will have a huge impact on your sound stage. It's a pity you're in Capetown otherwise i bring some samples over and let you hear what a difference it makes.

[SA Audiophile]

Thanks again for your insights Perfectionist 

Yes, I dig the gramaphone too - it was a gift from my wife a few years back.  Funny enough in my previous listening room, it was placed about a meter to my left on the same axis as the listening position and I normally removed the horn when listening to music, as I could have sworn it impacted the acoustics of the room!   

Apologies if it seemed as if I contradicted myself.  Let me clarify.  In the room where I have my system now, the most significant problem that I've been grappling with is getting the bass right.  There are great bass everywhere, except when I'm seated in my listening position!  The obvious answer to this is move the listening position and speakers, but whilst I have tried a number of different seating and speaker positions, moving the ATC's (which are on stands on granite slab, which are on spikes) is one heck of an effort, so it is easier said than done and also regardless of what configuration I used, I always had the same problem. 

Luckily I have made some progress lately  .  After reading about the 38% rule in this thread and visiting the relevant websites, I moved my listening position as close as I could to 38% and finally it feels as if I am making some progress - the bass at my listening position is now much better and also more even across the frequency range!  I have also been in contact with Audiomuze and he's given me some excellent tips on toe-in on his ATC's, which I intend trying out in my system as soon as I get a chance.  I am definitely also going to look into the first order reflection points as well! Thanks again!