Distance from the front not the rear wall?


What´s the optimun distance from the front wall (lisener seat) to the speakers? A lot has been said about the distance from the speakers to the rear wall, but no much regarding the distance from the lisener seat to the speakers. I ask because my seat is located against the front wall and I wonder if the sound (direct from the speakers and the sound reflected from all surfaces) that hear is "blurred" due to this reflexions. Should I put my seat at the same distance I have placed the speakers from the rear wall? Thanks in advance for your comments.
tiofelon
BE FREE FELLOW FREQUENCY FREAKS: It's personal...My speakers are on either side of a "fake" fireplace about a foot and a half from the back wall and 6 inches from the "fireplace" walls..with a powered sub stuck in behind the left speaker. The sweet spot is on a couch 3 feet from the back wall (to enjoy that along with me you need to sit in my lap or on my shoulders...creepy but true). Done. I used to move the speakers into the room for "serious" listening but stopped because they sound GREAT where they are...go figure. Floor rug, other comfy chairs...sloping high ceiling...and since I'm a pro musician/sound technician (live shows mostly), my ego would never allow me to pay attention to so-called "formulas" for speaker placement any more than I would entertain suggestions on how much to salt my food or sweeten my coffee. I actually like the "tone" of my room and listen to a very wide range of music...and it all sounds different, very different, and my system puts a stable soundstage right in front of me. Did you know that sound level CHANGES percieved frequencies due to comb filtering and phase anomalies? So unless you listen to everything at exactly the same level your room treatments might be futile unless you live in an empty concrete box. And do you know what a "dead" room sounds like? I do...it sounds terrible (unnatural). Hense the word "dead". Here's another one: I replaced my speaker spikes with Vibrapods for a large improvement in everything (my hair even got thicker)...and from what I've recently read you can see THAT tweek train coming with suspended speakers (new Sonus for example) being the New Black. Who knew?
The front wall is the wall thats in front of you when your in the sweet spot . I thought Stereophile put that matter to rest years ago .
I think that the use of specific absorbing room treatment can go a long way in adapting to the situation.

Absolutely.

I have seen research that suggests you need to get the reflections 21 db below the primary signal to make them inaudible (according to lab tests rather than theory).

Diffusion behind the listener might be the most effective. If the listening position is anywhere near a corner then corner bass traps would also help.
It depends on the size of the room too. In my small room the listening position from the rear wall is about 2 feet(Tiofelon -I think we need to get the front/rear wall description right in the first place).

Personally I guess folks can either choose to place the listening chair at # feet from the rear wall or against it to achieve the best results that suit his room/ears/listening preference. Nevertheless, I believe it is still prudent to have some space from the rear wall to the listening chair for optimum results IMO. Shadorne's 4 feet - 8 feet can be useful in large spaces but not feasible for smaller rooms. It is more important to treat the wall behind the listener with absorption or diffusion(personally I prefer diffusion).

To summarize, try different configurations and adopt the one that sounds the best to your ears. Speaker placement and listening distance relative to wall boundaries are all correlated.
The obvious solution to the dilemma of "room treatment" is to buy a good set of headphones.