To O.P.: If you mentioned distance from back of speakers to back wall, I didn’t catch it. And that distance really matters in a small home office.
My home office is maybe 13’ x 13’, but a large double closet bump-out makes it more like 11’ x 13’. I’ve had 6 pairs of monitors here: started out w/3 pairs of powered monitors, but gave up on those. I’m on my 3rd pair of passives. I’ve always had a single sub (current sub is the excellent JLAudio e110).
I learned 3 important things in my system:
1 - Sealed/acoustic suspension speakers work way better than ported ones (the speakers are only ~1 ft from back wall, actually a large picture window w/blinds always down. All 3 passive monitors are sealed, and the bass seemed relatively unaffected by proximity of the back wall.
2 - Speakers that feature a musical/merciful upper midrange & treble are way easier to listen to hour after hour.
3 - And you needn’t look only for speakers advertised as nearfield speakers.
I really hit paydirt w/the passive ATC SCM12 Pro monitors. These sealed monitors are pretty big, but the sound is impressive: very good sound even at low volumes (that’s unusual), and when I crank it...wear a football helmet.
I just upgraded to a vintage pair of KEF 103.2 monitors--also sealed, even larger. They were never intended for nearfield use, but they are excellent in this office. Really fine sound. As amazing as the ATCs are here, I think I prefer these vintage KEFs. I cranked them for the 1st time yesterday and was astounded at how well they boogie. They also sound very good at low volumes, almost equalling the KEFs in that essential attribute.
