Gunbunny,
You may have lost sight of the forest for the trees. You mention your TV sitting out about 2 feet - if that is a hulking RPTV monolith, that sitting in between the speakers is doing a lot more damage to your soundstage than whether you can get the speakers an extra foot out from the wall. Almost any speaker sounds better (depth of soundstage particularly) a considerable distance out from the wall (on the order of a third of the way into the room). I don't think there really is any significant boundary effect for the port at 2 feet away from the wall. Some towers with side firing woofers (like the NHT 2.9 and 3.3) are designed to be close to the wall. This is for bass response - they still create a better stage moved out. You say you can audition in home - move them in a variety of positions and see if any are unacceptable to you. Can you also take a pair of different design home for comparison?
You may have lost sight of the forest for the trees. You mention your TV sitting out about 2 feet - if that is a hulking RPTV monolith, that sitting in between the speakers is doing a lot more damage to your soundstage than whether you can get the speakers an extra foot out from the wall. Almost any speaker sounds better (depth of soundstage particularly) a considerable distance out from the wall (on the order of a third of the way into the room). I don't think there really is any significant boundary effect for the port at 2 feet away from the wall. Some towers with side firing woofers (like the NHT 2.9 and 3.3) are designed to be close to the wall. This is for bass response - they still create a better stage moved out. You say you can audition in home - move them in a variety of positions and see if any are unacceptable to you. Can you also take a pair of different design home for comparison?