Great Imaging Speakers Working against a wall?

Sean, fine post, with kudos to Roy Allison, of course....
But have ever REALLY heard flush-mounts that have stage depth BEHIND the speakerplane?

Two possibilities come to mind. Perhaps by deadening the reflections off your left wall you could effect better symmetry of image. Secondly, try to follow Harry's rule of thirds by moving your chair away from the back wall. You can push it back between listening sessions so as not to upset wifey's symmetry. This plan may require you to experiment with the distance beween your speakers.
And remind your wife that you bought the house to live in..........not to look at.

Thanks all for some great ideas!

With only 12' room width, and the speakers 40" from the front wall, there is only scope to pull the listening seat a foot, maybe 18" at the most, from the back wall. I've tried this and frankly, being within 5/6 feet of the speakers which are 10' apart doesn't really give the sound chance to 'integrate' (looking for a better word here).

Moving the speakers closer together, and me closer to the speakers, gives a little more stage depth, but closes down the stage width - which is not really desirable.

I note Subaruguru's comments about never getting real stage depth with speakers against a wall, but believe me, I've heard remarkable stage depth from a pair of Kef 103's, driven by an old bryson amp and a Sony CD player!!

The speakers were flush to the front wall and seemed to stage from level with the front (little or no forward projection) to some 15 or 20 feet behind the speaker - on a non-audiophile recording to boot!

This experience was some 10 years ago, and perhaps the stage depth has increased a little with memory loss, but it was truly excellent!

So I guess I'm asking another question...do you think the source and amp that I have could create the stage depth/width and imaging with perhaps a pair of Audio Physic Sparks - listening in the nearfield, with 40" max between the front wall? - Audio Physic recommend the listening seat hard against the back wall on their site....any better ideas.

On the ever developing 'wife front' - when she met me I lived in an apartment with a 18' X 38' living room, occupied by a love seat, tv (sitting on the rug), a pair of Apogee Caliper Signatures half way down the room, Linn LP 12 and a Krell 300i.....the only other furniture in the whole apartment was the bed!
So....I was good enough for her then, what's changed?

I suggested some form of counselling, but she actually wanted me to go with her, can you believe it?

Rooze

Both NHT 3.3 and PSB Strauss were designed to be placed directly against the wall. Haven't heard them so I can't say how good they are.

Ernie: No, i can't say that i've heard anything like that other than during HT sound effects. Obviously, this is done using electronic processing, so i would not expect this to be achieved with "normal" music recordings and this specific speaker placement. That does not mean that the speakers are not capable of producing a very vivid and detailed soundstage with excellent placement and imaging from the baffles forward. Sean
>