One of my friends has a quad / quicksilver KT88 system. The listening chair was about 5-6 feet from the speakers. Small room. No power, generally good imaging, but tonal midrange to die for. If you're into vocals, that's a great setup. The speakers were 2-3 feet from the back wall, on stands.
I had some magnepan 1.6QR's for a while. Incredible bargain. They played optimally when 7 feet from the back wall, and about 7 feet from the listening chair. It's not much fun to look at a 'wall' that is so close. I usually kept them 3 feet from the back wall.
Check out the audio-physic line. Those image very well too and are small enough to make near-field listening unobtrusive. They don't have the top-to bottom coherence and large soundfield image placement of a true panel speaker, but do portray slightly truer instrumental and vocal sounds. The spark, tempo and virgo are all excellent. You mainly sacrifice bass as you go cheaper.
Panel speakers tend to be picky as you move around the room. They get thinner sounding if you leave the sweet spot.
I had some magnepan 1.6QR's for a while. Incredible bargain. They played optimally when 7 feet from the back wall, and about 7 feet from the listening chair. It's not much fun to look at a 'wall' that is so close. I usually kept them 3 feet from the back wall.
Check out the audio-physic line. Those image very well too and are small enough to make near-field listening unobtrusive. They don't have the top-to bottom coherence and large soundfield image placement of a true panel speaker, but do portray slightly truer instrumental and vocal sounds. The spark, tempo and virgo are all excellent. You mainly sacrifice bass as you go cheaper.
Panel speakers tend to be picky as you move around the room. They get thinner sounding if you leave the sweet spot.