Why does pulling out main speakers from wall improve sound?

Even in a small room, getting those drivers out at least 32 inches from the front walls and side walls will be a dramatic, almost miraculous effect on the stage depth and width. Transients and micro details (trails) are only possible for that realism your ears crave. And yes, best free tween ever. This alone made the HUGEST difference for my system compared to anything else.

Speaker placement varies with every speaker system, there are no standards to really follow. You can check out the Cardas website, you will find their system for speaker placement in a room based on the room dimensions which is a good starting point. You can also try the rule of thirds for placing speakers, a third of the way into the room from the front wall and a third into the room from the side walls. Start their and move incrementally forward and back, side to side until a familiar recording locks in place. You will know when it happens. It might take many tries to find the right spot but you will be happy that you went through the trouble.

@k600r you are absolutely correct, I have 2 sets of speakers, one set has to be up against the wall or no more than 6" out from the wall, and the other set sounds better about 1/3 of the way into the room, both sound best pointed straight forward.

Moving around and forward is not only a good idea, your dealer was polite at best, but part of the experimentation and the experience. Not going into technical details as many have pointed correctly the reasons behind it but try to locate them in the room where they sound more coherent to your ears, with a wide range of musical material. Depending on your speakers and room you may find that it would be an easy job or one demanding a lot of effort. All you have to do is enjoy, listen and be patient.

@jumia  

While most posts answering your question suggest pulling your speakers several feet off the rear wall, Focal, who know something about speakers, do not ascribe to this theory.  Focal uses a flexible equation to find the best speaker placement.

“Optimisation For perfectionists, here is a formula for optimal positioning: If A is the distance from the centre of the woofer to the nearest floor or wall, B is the distance to the next closest floor or wall, and C is the greatest distance (A < B < C), the equation B2 = AC defines the ideal loudspeaker position. • Example: If the centre of the woofer is 20” (50cm) away from the rear wall (A) and 24” (60cm) above the floor (B), then the side wall will be ideally 28” (72cm) away [C = B2 ⁄ A = 28” 

I found this a little confusing at first, but it became clear in short order.  There are three distances involved.  Floor to center of woofer, Side Wall to center of woofer and rear wall to canter of woofer.  The shortest distance is always “A”.  This is usually floor to center which is the only constant.  The next shortest distance is always “B”, and the longest distance is always “C”.  The distance “C” is always (B x B) divided by A. 

By example, if your floor to woofer is 24 inches, and you are 6 feet off the back wall, you would need to be 42 inches off the sides wall.  If you wanted 8 feet center to center on your speakers, your room would need to be 15 feet wide. 

In a nutshell, Focal suggests there is no rule about distance from back wall as long as C = (B x B) / A