Listening position/speaker position

Just to be clear the front wall is the one you are facing, the rear wall is the one behind your head.  If you are listening  11 feet from the front baffles then your speakers should be about 9 feet apart measured from the center of the front baffles. Try your speakers 5 feet 2 inches out from the front wall measured from the center of the front baffles, then move you listening position 11 feet back from that. This will "rough you in" then tweak as needed. Be patient, take you time and the results will be rewarding. But your friend is off base from his suggestion. Good luck.

Thanks @tvad for the book recommendation - I just ordered a copy of "Get Better Sound".

I owned the 228be and McIntosh 462 (picture under my profile). The only thing that matters for power is listening distance and sensitivity, Not room size. At 10’ you can’t be using more than 5-10 watts at ear bleeding volume. 
 

the 228be lacks bass extension and need some room gain without subs. If you move them out from the wall you will lose some bass unless you move them 8’ into the room. That is just based on 1/4th wave cancelation. 
 

I also have a large room. 26’x30’ with openings that effectively extend the room to 40’ in length. I have tried the speakers 8’ into the room with my seats 10’ back. This still left 12’ behind me. This was a very good sounding setup but does not work for my video and I moved them back to 4’-ish feet off the wall which works well with subs highpassed but would cancel 60hz if not high passed…. 
 

anyway, moving speakers is free. You will lose bass between 3’ and 7’ off the wall. Once you are over 8’ the bass will come back and the soundstage will be better (deeper). At that point it is just a matter of balancing room modes and nulls. 

I think it was Audio Physics that recommended a similar loudspeaker/listener setup.  Have the loudspeakers along the long axis of the room spaced widely apart with the listener within a foot of the rear wall.  It was offered to maximize image width and depth.  The trade-offs of not having loudspeaker bass reinforcement and sitting in a high pressure zone roughly balance out.  There is no problem with rear reflection because of the short distance involved.

There are no real absolutes regarding loudspeaker/listener/room setup, only guidelines.

It doesn’t matter where in the room the speakers are, they will always have to pressurize the room. That’s just the silliest thing I’ve heard today. And that bar is pretty high because I’ve been following current events in our world.