Bookshelf Speakers that have to be up against the wall

Note the comment about how some speakers are "voiced" for near wall placement. Anyone can "voice" a speaker to not sound as bad near a wall. All this means is the frequency response is tailored so the speaker actually needs to be placed near a wall to sound best- in terms of frequency response.

But the OP specifically said "they lost most of their imaging." Well, of course they did! Anything else would defy the laws of physics. No amount of speaker design, no "voice" can change the fact the sound coming off the speaker hitting a flat surface so near by is gonna ruin the imaging. Cabinet, bookshelf, wall, does not matter. All the same as far as the soundwave goes. 

Things that will help - increasing the distance by any amount whatsoever, either by pulling the speaker out, or moving things away sideways; absorptive material, ideally something like Owens Corning fiberglass panel (any size, whatever you can get away with) but even something like soft fabric will help; staggering whatever you can, think books pulled out/pushed in different amounts. 

Really good imaging requires speakers being placed about 3 feet away because reflected sounds arriving within about a 3 to 5 millisecond window affect our ability to localize, and sound travels about one foot per millisecond. So anything you can do to eliminate or attenuate reflections within the first few feet of the speaker will have an inordinate effect on imaging.

 

You lost your imaging the minute you put the speakers right up against the wall. Only thing worse you could do is put them on an actual bookshelf with books and stuff lined up flush with the front of the speakers. Bookshelf is a term of size. The last thing in the world you ever want to do is put them on an actual book shelf.

This is because all speakers, in order to sound their best, need to be set up so the sound goes from the speaker to your ears. What you have now is the sound goes from the speaker to the wall to your ears. Every sound coming off the speaker reflects within a millisecond off the wall, and not just the once either but constantly across the whole surface of the wall, until the sound reaching your ears is this garbled mess, which is why they image so poorly now. Move them even a foot or two out and you will see. Move them 3 or 4 feet out and they will image like champs.

Porting is misleading. If the port is in the back and too close (within inches) to the wall then yes this will affect the response. But most of this will happen whether or not they are ported. 

In other words, don't go looking to new speakers to solve your problems, Go looking to new speaker PLACEMENT.