Bookshelf speakers positioning

[Blade35]

Hi All,
I am in the UK and considering some Q Acoustics M20 speakers for gaming and casual music listening.

However, the position of my desk may be a problem. On the left side there is a wall, and given the size of the desk and the speakers, I can probably have about a foot's gap to the wall. On the right side, the wall goes back a bit, so there is more space.

I am not sure if the left speaker has enough space. I know the Q Acoustics have a mode to put the speakers next to a wall but not sure what performance penalty there may be?

 

[sweetchaos]

Get a UMIK-1 and perform the moving mic method. You’ll see how moving speakers will change your frequency response.

Plus, you need to deal with room modes, so UMIK-1 is a requirement anyway.

 

[steve-z]

I've been using Q Acoustics M20s for over a year now, in fact I have 2 pairs, one in my living room setup and one in the bedroom setup, each is fed by a Bluesound Node 2i streamer and I have my own digital music library on Mac computers in both rooms.
The only difference between the 2 setups is the living room setup uses the dedicated QA 3000i stands the bedroom pair are on Atacama Nexus stands.
The bedroom size is only 2/3 the size of the living room so the speakers are closer to the wall and as the stands are not as tall I have the bass EQ set in the near wall position which I find works fine, in the living room I have them set for free space, the adjustment shelves down the low response but doesn't seem to affect the bass extension which tbh is pretty remarkable for the box size, I actually changed from floor standers in the living room and didn't really lose any noticeable amount at the low end.
In answer to Blade 35, I can't really comment on how they would work in a desktop situation not having tried it myself but I would think with the EQ switched for corner use it could curb the bass sufficiently for desk use in a reasonable proximity to the wall, if that wasn't enough then using the supplied foam port bungs would probably work okay.
I've had many hifi setups over the last 50 years and the M20s rank extremely highly and if you take value for money into account they're outstanding.