Sitting as far back as is reasonable puts me about 12 ft back and 2 ft from the wall behind me. I get a wide, albeit less defined soundstage. The blending of all of the instruments provides a nice effect that I enjoy. I listen that way now pretty much exclusively; so I would say the sacrifice in ultimate definition is worth the expansive and wider presentation to me. Sitting within the 10 ft range; the individual artists are etched more clearly and are more stable but that gets on my nerves after awhile. So; to answer your question I favor a less defined and more expansive sound. This BTW is a usefull excersize to get one out of the usuall rut and to establish some sort of data base that has a small chance of being understood by the group as a whole. So whats the thrust of the information so far?