I have not read the thread responses and will just respond with my experience moving speakers against the wall, out from the wall, narrower, wider, toe angle, you name it. This is in a perfectly rectangular room with ideal positions for seating based on avoiding room modes.
I have heard the advice that for best stereo image the speakers should be away from the front wall.
Is this "away from the front wall" advice because:
-For full range speakers there is so much bass boost that it "overpowers" the image? (activating room modes, which could be fixed with eq to reduce bass)
As you say, room correction takes care of this issue.
Or, perhaps "away from the front wall" is total nonsense?
It's definitely not, from my personal experience.
I would guess that a lot of people have their speakers in the 3-6ft AVOID! range. That cancellation/comb filtering doesn't seem fixable by EQ according to this note from
Genelec "Equalization of the monitor output level does not help, as the same level change applies also to the reflected sound."
You are right. Most of us will end up in that range with little we can do about it.
However, even with upper bass/lower midrange SBIR, they still sound better away from the wall.
What I heard when 6" from the wall + room correction: perfect bass with no dips. I also heard a sort of congestion, hardness, lack of clarity from the midrange.
What I hear when 2' from the wall + room correction: much more open and clear sound. Better separation of detail. The bass is not perfect however to hear the issues you really need to focus and play sine waves.
There is more to consider, though. When the speakers are moved, there is another variable that is changing: your distance to the speakers. This can affect where you sit in the polar response, and how much reflected sound you are getting. If you move the speakers back a couple of feet, you move the first reflection points back as well. When you're sitting closer, you're hearing fewer reflections as a component of the sound and it will sound more clear and intimate. This is a sound I prefer.
So when you read people's experiences about moving speakers back and forth, keep in mind they are probably not moving their seats to match and their listening distance is changing, as are the reflection points and direct-to-reflected sound ratio. This affects clarity, imaging, and soundstage. Having speakers against the wall has its own effects and it is hard to separate them.