What speaker for being close to rear wall?

Gradient Revolutions

Guru speakers were the talk of the show in NY a few years ago.
Made to be against the wall. Incredible bass!

http://blog.stereophile.com/he2007/051607sjofn/

Any speaker which is non-ported or front ported will work well closer to a back wall. I've had success with Linn Katan, Linn Majik 109 and currently Spendor S5e floorstanders, which use a transmission line design and port out the bottom. Aerial 5's also work well, but need lots of power.

It's the rear porting than tends to cause bloated bass problems.

I agree about the porting, but there seems to be more at work. For instance I had Avalons that were bottom ported and they needed to be 6-7 feet out. It seems some of the older vintage designs were designed to work well in corners or against the wall. English speakers also generally seem to get mentioned a lot.

While I agree in theory that non-ported work well close to a wall...it doesn't always work in practice. I was using Mirage OMD-5s at my desk, which are acoustically sealed, and they don't sound good unless away from the walls. Way too much bass reinforcement. I'm assuming it is because of the omni sound dispersion bouncing off the walls and reinforcing. That's why I'm using Gallo A'Divas for the moment. They need the reinforcement.

I'm thinking about trying some Paradigm Signature S1s and see how they fare. Couldn't agree more on rear port...that by a wall is uber bad. :-)