Home demo. ProAc D48R and Spendor D9

For my own I always prefer soft dome on hybrid Proac (and I have ribbon tweeter at that time in my Analysis Audio) because of better coherence  between dynamic medium and ribbon tweeter. Even if ribbon tweeter is better.
But that’s only me. 

@seagod77,I am slightly perplexed - you have a bigger room size than me. Is there a limitation as to why you cannot pull the speakers more than the distance you specified? While true that overall room size is bigger, the distance to back and side matters for imaging and depth of sound stage. If you don't allow the speakers to "breath", then you will have lot of smearing in the imaging area and depth will be shallow and you will end up blaming the speakers for being "in your face". One thing that will favor the D48 overt the D9 is that they are downward ported instead of being back ported.
As far as ribbons are concerned, yes they are sensitive and placement is important. But ProAc's approach to ribbons is pretty good and even when I sway my head a few inches in any direction, the change is not drastic as some other designs I have heard. When you take the time to properly position the speakers, the imaging, midrange and vocals are breathtaking.
@jetter,While the ribbon is delicate, it is protected by a grill. If you check my system, I have a close up pic of the D48's ribbon tweeter. That should give you an idea about the ProAc's ribbon.

I have the D9s in a ~ 13x17 well-damped room with 26" behind them and ~ 20" to the sides.  I get great bass from them; it is deep and musical but not overpowering.  I went to the D9s from sealed Magicos so I definitely would have been aware and annoyed of a boomy sound after making the speaker switch.    I was concerned after hearing the D9s at the dealer's slightly larger room that their bass would overpower my room and was going to try the D7s, but in the end I feel the D9s work fine in my room.

Hi Milpai, the reason is my room is open plan shared lounge room, dinning room area. 

My hi fi system is set up on the left half of this room. Speakers are set up on the long wall, so very restricted in regards how much space behind them. Unfortunately this is the only area I have to work with.
 
I am starting to realise perhaps the well designed 3 way Spendor is going to work out a bit better for me. The flow port design of this is pure genius, no boom whatsoever. Only the very deep bass is coming through, and it is so very tight and tuneful like a sealed box design.

The ProAc has to be moved out from the wall way too much to stop the excessive bass. I am seeing that in comparison it struggles a bit in comparison with deep bass vs tunefully bass. Not so with the  D9. 

And I am starting to feel like the Spendor is still in the running in phase,  given them another 20 hours or so since I get them. The treble is now starting to open up and rival the D48R in detail. Perhaps not as fast though, midrange , vocals seem to be a tie on both now, Although the soundstage is better on the D48R. But the deep bass is not as bloated and is more tuneful on the D9.

Whichever way I decide, neither will be a bad option and I am surprised how great both are with my system, taste and the build quality is superb on both.

There is no perfect speakers ,there are some strengths points for D48 that are better than the D9 and there are some strengths for the D9 that are better than the D48 , There's always compromise when choosing the right speakers for you.
From what you are describing I think the D9 integrated better than the D48 in your listening space.