I had Allison Ones in 1976. You needed a room that was about 12 feet wide. You put the Allisons against the side walls 3 feet from the front wall with only one side of the Allisons facing the listening position. The other side faced the front wall which required a little absorption. Set up like this they would image very nicely. With the speakers facing you directly the image was a foggy mess. I never used them with subwoofers. None were around yet.
K horns and the La Scala were designed specifically to be against a wall but back then that is what everyone did. They put the speakers against the wall usually in corners. Away from the wall positioning was born with the KLH 9 , Quads, Dahlquist DQ 10 and Maggies. My dad had Bozak B302A's up against the wall in corners. I am not a big fan of putting speakers in walls. The wall is nothing but a sound board with very unpredictable behavior. For theater systems sound quality comes second to last. It is more important to hide the speakers which you need for special effects.
K horns and the La Scala were designed specifically to be against a wall but back then that is what everyone did. They put the speakers against the wall usually in corners. Away from the wall positioning was born with the KLH 9 , Quads, Dahlquist DQ 10 and Maggies. My dad had Bozak B302A's up against the wall in corners. I am not a big fan of putting speakers in walls. The wall is nothing but a sound board with very unpredictable behavior. For theater systems sound quality comes second to last. It is more important to hide the speakers which you need for special effects.