how far do you sit from your speakers?

I sit 10 - 12 feet away.
A fluffy (as opposed to hard) blanket on the back wall works wonders.
Also, a chair without a headrest is preferable.

Yes you need to be sitting well away from any wall - 2 feet is a minimum - 4 feet or more is best.

Speakers are (approximately) 6.5' apart and I sit 9' to 9.5' feet away. Speakers are slightly toed-in. These are the general paramaters provided by my speakers manufacturer (Merlin). The wall behind me is approx. 10' away.

According to the Wilson Audio Set Up Procedure (WASP), the listening seat should be in the area of 1.2 times the distance between the two speakers. For instance, if the speakers (measured from each tweeter) are 10 feet away from each other, you should consider sitting 12 feet away from each speaker. I hope this helps.

Some speakers work for near field better than others.I only had them for short time but a pair of Audio physic Sparks were fun since they were narrow florstanders easy to pull up away from wall and then put back.Those "near field" sessions gave up some bass but added to sound stage depth and speaker itself lent itself to doing so easily.Other large speakers or even monitors aren't as easy to move around.But some speakers require different distance from wall which everyone knows but some speakers like studio monitors are designed to listened to up close.But Hartley's rule of thumbs is good starting point before you start moving them around to find optimal placement.Some speakers sound lousy and are difficult set up some aren't.A lot of speakers just snap into focus with small changes in placement.
Chazbo