@bradf, one final comment. I encourage you to use the free Room Equalization Wizard software for optimizing speaker placement and establishing the best listening position. It takes some effort to get up to speed on using the software, but it really isn't all that difficult. There is a forum where you can go to ask questions, and there are a number of people on this forum that can also offer assistance in getting started including me and @hilde45. I can tell you that I would never have gotten my room to where it is now had I not used REW. None of the various guidelines, including the Cardas method, are able to really able to anticipate the peculiarities of side firing woofers. REW can also help if your room is anything less than perfectly symmetrical.
I've helped others set up a room optimally in as little as 3 hours. My own room took a good bit longer, because I was still learning about room acoustics and how to get the most out of REW while I was optimizing.
One problem is that when trying to optimize using critical listening, at least for me, is that my ability to listen critically wanes after an hour or two. Memory between sessions isn't exact. Any change in one position will offer improvement at one frequency and compromise another. REW allows you to study in depth the impact a given change in position has on the entire frequency range, as well as issues with excessive decay times, You can even use it to locate points that may be compromising imaging.
Well worth the effort, regardless of which speaker you ultimately end up buying.