Is it possible to have Good Imaging close to wall

The thing is, music occurs naturally in 3 dimensions, not one, to some extent always. The resulting spatial/timing cues are in teh recording, to various degrees always.

To play something that contains 3-D information in one dimension only can be viewed as a form of distortion, much like how the shape of features on the earths surface is distorted to some degree in any 2-dimensional paper map or view.

SO my goal is to reproduce the music accurately, including the information that our ears hear that tells us where the sound is coming from.

That requires what we call imaging and soundstage.

This was a big selling point for stereo recordings back when they were first introduced. The equipment most people played these recordings on back then were not suited to reproduce this though, so most people never cared as much about this as some other things with their music.

But play those same old stereo recordings form teh late 50's and early 60's on a modern SOTA system and see what you might hear. That's what is is all about!

Low distortion levels and accurate reproduction of details is needed for good imaging. If you are getting it out of any decent quality recording even, that is a good omen for the overall quality of the rigs playback potential overall.

PRiximity to walls works against this in general due to early reflections smearing the details to some degree as noted, but decent results might still be had, just not the best most likely. I have never hear any speaker placement close to the walls come anywhere near what that spacious mbl setup I heard did. 10-20% maybe if all was working well, which generally means the speaker cabinet had some depth, and dispersion was properly managed for such a placement.

I have old OHM Ls that I like a lot close to walls. Most older box designs, like these are not designed for 3-D imaging, but can still sound great with certain music in particular very close to walls. SPoundstage and imaging is in fact highly compromised though. SO good sound can still occur....it all depends, as much on expectations as anything.

Reflected sound is not required for the decoding of soundstage/imaging information contained in recordings. If a loudspeaker adds extra treble, it's inaccurate. If a loudspeaker adds extra deep bass, it's inaccurate. If a loudspeaker adds spaciousness, it too is inaccurate. Any of these inaccuracies might sound pleasing, but they are distortions of the original music signal.

For more detailed information about stereo recordings and you should read the series of articles from TAS by Robert E. Greene.

I have a set of Classic Audio Loudspeakers. They are 6" from the rear wall and image fine. They are nearly 3 feet deep though.

We also use a set of High Emotion Audio loudspeakers at the shop. They have a unique tweeter that can radiate in nearly 360 degrees. This particular speaker (Bella Twin; not on their website as far as I know) has rear-firing passive radiators, but it can be 1 1/5 foot to 2 feet from the wall and imaging is no worries.

Y'all should listen to Duke. He knows his stuff!

I have the Monitor Audio PL-200 loudspeakers. I bought them also because they are developed to be used close to the wall.

When you use an amp which can give a wide and deep stage. You get an extreme holographic and physical stage. In their price range I do not know what can give such a huge stage.

The ribbon tweeter makes the stage even bigger. Even near the wall you get easilly 4-5 metres of depth. The crossovers are stunning so you even can play 2 metres beside the speakers. Depends of the source and amp you use.

Stillpoints will make your stage also bigger. Also can be used on speakers.

Onh,

I suppose it depends on ones goals and corrsponding perspective.

If you just want to hear the recording, headphones are probably the best way to do that.

Any stereo speakers take it to different level by nature of the resulting sound heard being totally dependent on room acoustics in all cases, with the exception perhaps of an ideal nearfield setup.

If you consider the recording to be more than just a recording being played back in stereo on two speakers though, in other words a technical abstraction of live music, the sound of that too is always affected by room acoustics and those spatial cues from direct and reflected recorded sound is in the recording to various degrees. For teh best recordings, they tend to be there A LOT!!!

So the reflected sound of teh room during playback is needed in order to attempt to best reproduce what might have been heard live rather than just what is in a 2 channel stereo recording.

Of course playback room acoustics will be different than what existed during recording, so the two may never be exactly the same, but can come pretty close when both are similar.

You might get a pretty good idea what the jazz quartet sounded like when recorded live in a small jazz club in a decent sized room at home, but that symphonic recording is less likely to have the room to breathe that the original players did.