Lots of things at play but room construction plays a large part.
Engaging a good dealer and home demoing some is probably the answer.
For example Kudos 505/606 are universally loved here but they sounded dreadful in my room….
Gary
Thanks for the suggestions. We will be moving next year and I do not want to move the NBLs. They were set up by the dealer and have moved only once. There are no boxes so disassembly is not an option. I am happy with my CEC CD5, refurbished P25, and Nakamichi DR1. ND5XS2 is currently on an office system but will be another source. I may change to Nap 300 after moving. I plan on listening to as many current speakers to compare but close to wall placement narrows the choices. Hopefully Audio show will provide some candidates to focus on.
A new house owner could be happy there… 
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Snap, in my case a new build with top quality finishing ( 
)
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If you don’t mind what type of room build, stone walls, modern plasterboard, brick and plaster?
Just trying to understand what is unfriendly to these Kudos speakers.
My room was a horror show… stud wall with large gaps that acting like a giant drum skin, wonky floor part concrete part wood. The room suffered badly from bass “suck out”
Don’t let me put you off Kudos speakers, my point was it’s worth doing a home demo before committing as the room plays a big part.
Gary
Gary
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I have the rear of my B&W CM8 S2s 30 cm from the rear wall, so the drivers are somewhat further away. Seem to work well.
Regards tone, both my pairs of Piegas are OK near a wall - clear and with no real boom in the bass. However, imaging and stage depth does improve with increased distance from the wall. Overall they are pretty tolerant.
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It’s a shame they don’t get the profile they deserve. The dealer I bought my first pair from (my daughter now has those) blamed the £ to Swiss Franc exchange rate. Who knows? It’s a shame though.
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They are certainly very good speakers. I have a pair of TS3s in the bedroom and T-Micro 60AMTs which, IMO, are very good speakers. They are not flashy but build quality and finish is first rate - a bit like their sound really.
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‘Someone’ needs to produce a new IBL.
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It would be great if Focal were to produce some sealed boxed designs with matching sub similar to that of a 2.1 n-SAT speaker system.
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It would be great if someone bought Naim’s quota from Focal and gave it back to Naim.
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As our system is in the lounge, there is always compromise on speaker positioning, so we’ve never had rear ported speakers.
Speakers that can be close to the rear wall that we’ve successfully used are;
- Ruark Icon - Front ported
- PMC Twenty23 - Transmission line, front ported
- Kudos Titan 606 - Isobarik, bottom ported
DG…
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As I understand it, transmission line speakers are, generally speaking, OK close to a wall. I have a pair of B&W DM2as nestled into two of the corners of the lounge and they sound just fine.
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The big Shahinians also manage fine close to the back wall, with the advantage that they can be pulled out on their castors when you really want them to shine
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I don’t have the boxes either but I do have the plates that bolt over the mids, the transit bolts for the mid/HF boxes and the bass modules though I had to make my own spacers and cover for the tweeter that also tucks under the front edge of the mid/HF box. When I moved from the UK to the south of France I paid a removals company to move a van load including my system and I paid as much again to insure it. I fitted the transit bolts etc and the removals guys wrapped the speakers in several layers of packing foam. and a cardborad outer layer.They was a week between pick up and delivery to allow us to set up in Montpellier, most of the system made it OK but the speakers received a few new minor dents and a tweeter died. Fortunately I could still get replacements from Scanspeak, though not from Naim. I didn’t fight for the insurance as valuing NBLs is tricky and after the excess it was only around €50 for the tweeters, the cabinet dents aren’t noticeable.
As delivered
NBLs on the right, a lot of those cube shaped boxes are LPs.
The second move we took the speakers in a separate trip from everything else, laid on their backs in our car with transit bolts but no cover, just blankets underneath and nothing else in the back with them but that was only 50km, they survived that one.
Instructions for securing the transit bolts, spacers and covers are findable on line and possibly on this forum with the right search.
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Surprised no-one’s mentioned classic Linn speakers. Kans, Saras and Isobariks were all designed to be placed close to walls. I still have the Isobariks in a second system, and am always reminded how great they sound. Saras are underrated but need lots of power. Kans are legendary…
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Anyone tried Wilson Duette or TuneTot? These were designed to go close to the wall.
LS3/5 A does not work close to wall.
Linn Kan 1 or 2 (same size)work close to wall , but sadly not
available as new speakers anymore.