Bookshelf Speakers that have to be up against the wall

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.

Talk to Fritz and ask him to make you a pair specifically for use against the wall.
It won't solve everything, but you'll get more efficient speakers with better sounding bass and treble balance.

Yes, it is true that putting speakers so close to the back wall would affect sound. Google "speaker boundary interference response" (SBIR) for more reading on this, but the general idea is if a speaker is too close to a wall, it will use the wall to "plane" or "bloom" the wave forms generated from the speaker drivers.

Also, like Erik said, do not get a speaker with a rear port if you are going to push it up against the wall. Make sure it has a front port.

Thanks for the input so far. The speakers are actually not on a bookcase, more like sitting on a cabinet, so a nice solid surface, I can move them out perhaps a foot, but cannot put stands in front of the cabinet. I’ll see how much that helps. 

Audio Note AN-K sealed cabinets and designed to be placed in a corner or against a wall. Should be around your budget.