What speaker for being close to rear wall?

One thing I'd be leery of, if you have to go near the front wall, is getting speakers that are not voiced for near wall, but said to work "pretty well" in close. One day, you'll pull them away from the wall out of curiosity, and you'll likely find they sound much better further out (as indeed the manufacturer's directions indicate), and you'll be bummed to have to return them to the livable configuration, knowing you're not able to take full advantage of what you paid for. Happened to me, anyway.

John

Totem, more specifically in corners.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the suggestions and there are definitely a few here I have not ever considered.

Mike

I think you mean front wall . Most speakers will produce more bass near a wall so a speaker thats bass shy would be a place to start , and of course front ported .

Agree on the wall description. If it is the wall in front of the listener how can it be the "rear wall"?

Now for the problem (regardless of what you call it). Bass frequencies load up (are emphasized) at room boundaries. Any two planes (such as wall and floor) are the normal example but corners are three plane intersections and therefore create greater emphasis. Few speakers are specifically designed to compensate for or take advantage of this condition.

Klipsch corner horns were designed to take advantage of the loading. AR-9s, and their offspring, were designed to compensate for this loading (by driver size, placement, and crossover points).

I don't know how many other speakers were designed from one of these two concepts but they include Snell Type A, Allison, Naim, Linn, and AudioNote. Also, the suggestion for bass shy models may work but you could end up with an upper bass emphasis without any mid or lower bass, resulting in a heavy or overly warm sound.

Then in addition to bass response, imaging can also be affected by close wall placement.

Good luck.