Flat panel on/near the wall doesn't completely eliminate the issue, but it helps. If your speakers are out past the plane of your large CRT or rear projection TV, putting a flat panel TV on the wall will now place your speakers about 2 feet out past the plane of the TV screen if you leave the speakers where they were located when you had the old TV. For some folks with WAF issues, this would even allow you to move the speakers back toward the wall a bit without having them behind the plane of the TV screen.
Another nice feature of a flat panel hanging on the wall is that you can make a simple hanging blanket or designer fabric "wall hanging", drape it over a dowel rod, and create an easy to use absorsion panel that hangs right over the top edge of the TV when the TV is not in use. You could easily make something that looked decent and many people might even think its art. Can't really say that about a blanket thrown over a big box TV.
Enjoy,
TIC
Another nice feature of a flat panel hanging on the wall is that you can make a simple hanging blanket or designer fabric "wall hanging", drape it over a dowel rod, and create an easy to use absorsion panel that hangs right over the top edge of the TV when the TV is not in use. You could easily make something that looked decent and many people might even think its art. Can't really say that about a blanket thrown over a big box TV.
Enjoy,
TIC