Speakers for 8.5 x 11 room?

at 3 feet from your speakers, why not a headphone set up instead?

I have a pair of Gallo Strada's in a room about the same size as yours. When I listen in the nearfield (3 feet from the speakers) they sound incredible. The Strada's are 3 feet from the rear wall and I am using a subwoofer and when I sit in my listening chair about 7 feet from the speakers, the integration with the sub is perfect whereas in the nearfield, the subwoofer does not have the same impact. Certainly worth checking out. For the size, these speakers are quite impressive. In this small room, they sound better that my Ref. 3's

I would reccomend the Ohm Micro Talls. these would truly shine in a room that size.
Check out the thread on the micros and read the comments

Your room dimensions are very close to mine, 12' x 8'. And yet, I'm getting very good results with a pair of merlin VSM-MX.

Speakers are 3' from front wall, approx. 2' from side walls, and I'm sitting over 5' closer to 6' from speakers.

So far, the room is not treated, except for carpeted floor.

The results are very satisfying.

North Creek music makes "near wall specific" designs for smaller rooms that sound very good, and one might work for you. Just a hunch, but speakers that go closer to walls might be a better way to go than extreme near field listening. If you search "north creek" or "near wall" here, you will finds lots of suggestions.

Another thought might be a single driver speaker; you could avoid driver integration issues, at least. People around here like Tekton Lores; I had a pair of Brines that sounded good and played close to walls, but were big.

John