Hi BLuemike.
RSAD's music room, which we use for demo'ing the Sason, is almost identical to yours. Our room is 11.5' x 18.5' with an 7.5' ceiling. Since it's a dedicated room, we've had them all over the place in that room - long wall, short wall, two feet from the back wall, etc., etc.
When optimized in each of those locations they performed great - beyond what one might expect but, they will change your paradigm when brought out in the room.
So, to answer the question "will they work in that small of a room", the answer is yes. For what it's worth, contrary to what one might perceive, they will also work in even smaller rooms when good care is given. We have a couple of clients who have rooms even smaller. The Sason Ltd ousted Talon, Avalon and Focus Audio in those rooms.
As for 2-4 feet from the back wall vs. out into the room, the Sasons are likely to smoke anything out there in an "apples to apples" set up comparison.
One other thing that may be of interest: We have done a few upgrades, most of which are also in Ted's Sasons but one specifically that we recently have made available. See the image below.
The shorter version has a couple of advantages. Technically, they maintain the same internal volume the woofer sees but we've taken the isolated sub compartment dedicated for the X-Over out of the cabinet and have moved it to the large back column of the speaker stand. In the older style, the X-Over was in it's own isolated compartment except for one coil - it was too large to fit in the X-Over compartment and still accomplish what we wanted so it was placed in the internal volume of the Sason. Neither Steve nor I were ever completely happy with that. So now, the entire X-Over is in the Stand's back column and the entire X-Over is isolated from everything that's going on in the internal volume of the speaker. Aesthetically and sonically, the Sason maintains it's extensions, balance and fullness from top to bottom and is visually less intrusive. In our nearfield set up, the Sason is the only speaker I have ever heard that's just not there sonically - even when not sitting in the "sweet spot" and even with the larger version which we still use in the music room. We sit only about 6.5' to 7' from the speakers. Maybe it's a visual thing but with the smaller version we find ourselves even more connected to the music - always our goal.
Do you live so far away that a couple of day visit wouldn't work out? You're invited during the week or a weekend. We have a guest room so we would be happy to put you up if that helps.
Hope this helps a bit Bluemike. Let me know if you have other questions. Happy to help best we can.
Cheers!
Robert
RSAD
