Distance from the front not the rear wall?

One has to work with the room he/she has. If it allows for enough space behind the speakers, behind the listener and to the sidewalls, that is great. If it does not, one needs to adjust. Jim Smith just voiced my system in my small to medium sized room. The first thing he did was to locate the listening seat for best and smoothest bass response. In my case, this meant moving the sofa even closer to the rear wall. My ears are now about 12" from the wall behind my head, but that wall is treated with absorption. Bass response, both in extension and smoothness, as well as soundstaging and image focus all improved with deliberate and careful placement of the speakers, the listening seat and specific room treatment.

I think it is very hard to generalize about this stuff. One does want to minimize reflections and give most speaker designs space to breath, but beyond that, each room is different and each system is different, and it will take time and experimentation with placement to optimize the sound in a given room for the most realistic presentation.

I think it is very hard to generalize about this stuff.

If everyone accepts that speakers are best kept away from reflective surfaces by several feet (ideally 3 or 4 feet or more in order to get an optimal stereo image and soundstage) then according to physics it is a given that the same applies to the listener. (A reflected sound within 5 msec of that of the direct signal from speaker to listener can be created either way: Speaker=>near speaker side Wall=>listener or Speaker=>near listener rear wall=> listener; and in both cases the imaging will not be as precise as without these close reflections)

Shadorne, I doubt anyone is disagreeing with what you've posted. I think that the use of specific absorbing room treatment can go a long way in adapting to the situation.

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I disagree with your conclusions completely.

As do many others, including the late John Dunlavy.
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BE FREE FELLOW FREQUENCY FREAKS: It's personal...My speakers are on either side of a "fake" fireplace about a foot and a half from the back wall and 6 inches from the "fireplace" walls..with a powered sub stuck in behind the left speaker. The sweet spot is on a couch 3 feet from the back wall (to enjoy that along with me you need to sit in my lap or on my shoulders...creepy but true). Done. I used to move the speakers into the room for "serious" listening but stopped because they sound GREAT where they are...go figure. Floor rug, other comfy chairs...sloping high ceiling...and since I'm a pro musician/sound technician (live shows mostly), my ego would never allow me to pay attention to so-called "formulas" for speaker placement any more than I would entertain suggestions on how much to salt my food or sweeten my coffee. I actually like the "tone" of my room and listen to a very wide range of music...and it all sounds different, very different, and my system puts a stable soundstage right in front of me. Did you know that sound level CHANGES percieved frequencies due to comb filtering and phase anomalies? So unless you listen to everything at exactly the same level your room treatments might be futile unless you live in an empty concrete box. And do you know what a "dead" room sounds like? I do...it sounds terrible (unnatural). Hense the word "dead". Here's another one: I replaced my speaker spikes with Vibrapods for a large improvement in everything (my hair even got thicker)...and from what I've recently read you can see THAT tweek train coming with suspended speakers (new Sonus for example) being the New Black. Who knew?