I’ve been reading that if you have to place monitors that are close to a wall, (which I do), that you should avoid rear ported ones and to go with front or non-ported ones. The wall to the rear is brick by the way, which I’ll likely treat for acoustics as I learn the room I’m working with (12’ wide x 17’ long.)

If needing to stick with front / non ported monitors, this is a wide-ranging listing I’m considering, which are very different, but come highly rated:
- FOCAL Alpha Evo 65 series
- Focal Shape 65
- Kali Audio LP6 v2
- Neumann KH80
- RCF AYRA Pro 8

Thanks for the advice!

 

You should never place monitors against the wall: it's true rear ports suffer particularly from this, but even for other types, this is not the optimal solution. Since you are about to buy good monitors, give them some space to express their value properly

 

Try this
http://noaudiophile.com/speakercalc/

 

Or this
https://sonicscoop.com/the-1-speaker-placement-tip-speaker-manuals-get-completely-wrong/