Near field listening and speaker placement

Was about to state Soix's point.
I listen to 3-ways in a 7.5' triangle in a 14x24 room.
The speakers are 8' out from the front wall.
I tried several serious 3 ways (N803, N804, Ariel 8, Revel F30, VA Fidelio) before deciding upon my choice (Parsifal Encores).
The Ariels and ESPECIALLY the Nautilus' had SERIOUS problems in the nearfield due to lack of coherence. The Revel F30 was pretty darn good, but my wife hated the California moderne looks. The Fidelios didn't work because their rear-firing woofs needed boundary reinforcement, and 8' is WAY too far away. So this can get tricky unless you take the easier route with excellent two-ways or at least 3-ways with a low cross.
Damping the room much more than you have is my strong preference, but you may be able to get decent sound in the nearfield. Controlling sidewall splatter with toe-in and speaker selection for off-axis response characteristics will be important. (You DON"T at all have to have a headphonesque stage...quite the contrary.)
I'm fortunate that my 7.5' triangle throws a stage about
12' wide and easily 10-15' deep!---WAY beyond the speaker positions. I use stuffed sofa and chairs with throw pillows
propped on top of them where windows and fireplace are at first reflection points. Wall-to-wall with pad is HIGHLY recommended, and a cross-beam ceiling doesn't hurt either.
By contrast my 14x14 cathedral-ceilinged hardwood-floored, multi-windowed familyroom system sounds like crap!...but it sure plays loudly! For TV that's fine...makes the "action" seem bigger, and for 2-channel HT that's ok.
But for serious music reproduction deader is better, and to repeat, ultra-coherent speakers in the nearfield just improve your odds of aquiring a stage and frequency-response
close to the designers' intent.
Good luck.

You also don't want a flat wall behind your speakers no matter how far out they are, I put 3 fig trees between and behind the speakers for dispersion and the soundstage and imaging improved...

In case anyone is still listening:

I am especially interested in the observations made in
this thread about speaker coherence and near-field
listening.

1. Is coherence a function of the spatial field set up by
the speaker for low vs. mid+high frequencies? What
specifically are you referring to as speaker coherence.
My understanding of a pair of coherent sources
from physics, does not appear to be relevant here.

2. How do you detect the effects of coherence? One of
my test&burn cd's has a listening test for "in phase"
vs "out of phase". Is one's ability to
distinguish "in phase" vs "out of phase" related to the
condition of coherence?

coherence as a consideration in near-field listening has to do with at what listening distance AND HEIGHT that the drivers meld together in a natural soundstage, proper balance, and phase coherence (some NEVER do). for instance in a tall line array like a Wisdom or Pipedreams you need to be further back for the drivers to "work" correctly. a single-driver Louther on the other hand, would be coherent at a much closer distance. some speakers never work properly in the near-field. you can experiment by starting at a few feet and slowly move back untill things sound "right". remember to also try different heights of your listening chair as you move back.

this issue is mostly related to the dispersion pattern of your tweeter as the high-frequencies are very directional. this is also why height is so important in the near-field on some speakers.

the biggest problem of near-field listening in a large space is the challenge of being able to fill the room with bass energy without blowing yourself out of your chair. for proper bass weight and warmth some room loading is necessary. if not properly addressed the sound can be thin and the "presense" and "weight" can be lacking.

I won't get into the technical aspects of coherence or why one speaker is better suited to nearfield listening than any other(mainly because I can't). But strictly from a listening standpoint you can tell when the different drivers of a given speaker come together as one complete whole, and that is what I meant in my post by coherence. In a speaker not well suited to nearfield listening(I agree with Subaruguru about B&W in this respect) with vocals in particular you can actually hear the midrange playing the midrange and the tweeter playing the highs rather than them coming together into one "coherent" or seamless sonic picture. This is why larger speakers where drivers can be spaced well apart from one another may not be good nearfield speakers--the drivers don't have sufficient distance to mesh before the sound reaches your ears. So, in short, despite the benefits of nearfield listening, if your speakers are not well-suited to this type of positioning you'll end up doing more harm than good with a nearfield setup. If you identify the speakers you're using someone here can probably tell you if it's worthwhile exploring this option.

Tim