Speakers that work close to the back wall


Hi! I'm trying to help my friend, who is new to audio (so am I), to built a new system. His room is 12x20x8 ft. with hardwood floors. His taste in music is mainly jazz.
The major constraint in terms of speakers placement is the distance to the back wall( he lives in a relatively small high-rise condo). He would prefer to keep it at 2-3 ft. max.
We also decided, that for now he will stay with quality integrated for amplification ( Plinius 9200, maybe new DK amp.) The amp should be SS ( apprehensive of tubes for some reason).
The price for speakers is not a major consideration, he's fairly flexible.
A few choices considered:
Von Schweikert VR-4 JR
Green Mountain Callisto
Totem Forest
I'm not sure wich speaker will work best near the back wall.
Please share your thoughts, every opinion is welcome. Regards.
maril555
Thank you, guys. I feel that I need to emphasize- not against the rear wall, just close, 2-3 ft. and about 7-8 ft. apart. actually I read numerous posts suggesting, that Totem speakers can be placed not far from the rear wall. Regards.
I'll second the statement made by Johnnantis about Rega's. I recently bought a pair of Rega Ela's. I have them positioned about 8" from the wall now and they actually sound better than when they were out about 3 ft. The bass is fuller, and there's no material harm to the sound stage. I'm still trying to decide where I like them best, but it seems they like it best about 12-15 inches out.

By contrast, my Totems are much better about 4 ft out.
Maril555,
Could you elaborate further ... whenever someone says a distance from the wall, I presume they are talking about to the speakers front baffle, not the back of the speaker. Which do you mean?
Audionote speakers work quite well placed 2-3 feet from the front wall.

I heard, at CES, the Gradient speaker working quite close to the walls of a small hotel room (about 1.5 ft) and they sounded quite good in that location. This is a compact, nice-looking speaker that is almost never seen but deserves more attention.