Why does pulling out main speakers from wall improve sound?

Thespeakerdude

Very interesting comments dude, I like the idea about putting a absorption panel immediately behind the main speaker even if you pull it out a bit.  Maybe this will reduce the muddiness because all those waves bouncing off the wall may be a bad thing.

I have a down firing speaker so the absorption panel would need to rest on the floor

Audiospyder,

I like the idea about walking from the wall and listening to your voice. A very effective tool to learn from. 

So have you ever had trouble coming up with something to say while sitting across from your date.

Great news! read up on the posts herein and you're all set.

@jumia the floor is only a concern for boundary reinforcement. That can be fixed if needed by equalization (DSP). The front wall reflection comes back towards the listener (not the ceiling). It is critical.  The muddiness is usually a large suckout and some reinforcement around the wavelength = 4x distance to wall. Early reflections is there two but that's imaging not muddy. Muddy could be too much boundary reinforcement emphasizing bass too much.

In my opinion HENRY53 is offering the best and simplest answer and I am hesitant to try to expound.  God gave us TWO ears on the side of our head and a brain that can detect minute differences in the timing of sound.  A voice arrives a millisecond earlier to one ear and our brain can instantly locate the voice in the dark.  Some sounds reflect or bounce of surfaces and others are more likely to get absorbed and diminish. Moving the speakers off the reflective surface of the back wall and side walls allows for better timing of the sound arriving to our ears.  There are a ton of other considerations such as low frequencies attenuating in corners or even canceling out.  That's why i agree when people advise to experiment with location and angles.