As I said above, the Rega bookshelf speaker was designed to be placed right against the wall. Once you get comfortable with the speaker, you will be surprised with the amount of real bass that it delivers. The Rega bookshelf used to get a decent amount of press coverage in the UK magazines, but not much now. I think it may have to do with price, as the speaker has bone from roughly $500 USD to $700 USD in a few years.
Rich
Rich