A listening distance similar to what we see below would not work well for most speakers. The distance is 5.5 m (18') or greater depending on how much the couch and speakers are pulled out.
Despite of the long listening distance and close proximity to the rear wall, it works really well due to a combination of broadband and narrow directivity. This means the frequency response is still very even and there's not as much room interaction as with traditional speakers.
This is great benefit if one is forced to place seating position far away.
Having some absorption behind the listening position is an advantage though when sitting this close.
And typically, the lowest frequencies can be high when sitting close the rear wall and one has to bring the level down. But this is easy with a DSP that will be sold with speakers.
There's a bit of loss of depth, but other than that the sound quality and tonality is really great, and with a effortless and weight to the sound smaller systems simply can't match.