Paul Stubblebine was in for a listen yesterday. Both mastering rooms at the old 1340 mission studio had front walls that were treated in a similar manner to mine (or, rather, mine is treated similar to what Paul did at the suggestion of Bob Hodas). He was chuckling because their modeling and measurements came up with the same solution of speakers near the front wall. He was remembering armchair experts telling him that was not the right place for the speakers - without ever being in the room.
Overall the new speakers were sounding very good. There is one little bump around 300Hz that I want to address. I need to do some more measurements because I don't know if the bump is in the speaker response (like a cabinet resonance) or if it is a room mode. The next prototype cabinets will be here in a bit. They are baltic birch rather than MDF, and that may have some influence on the bump I am hearing.