Being closer to the walls actually makes them more dependent on acoustic treatments
if not for one feature, which is four amplification channels with a gain adjustment for the tweeters. If they're too bright, you can just reduce the gain. Sharp, sibilant peaks due to wall reflections though won't get a lot of help from that feature. Yes, they're designed to work closer to the walls from the start, but that doesn't mean this kind of problem will never crop up. They are after all tested and professionally used in acoustically treated studios.
If anything though you can do a lot with just acoustic panels near the speakers, and not even anything that goes from floor to ceiling, to correct any issues audible from your listening position in a nearfield system. On top of that, from that distance you won't be cranking them up as loud as when you're 2m away, so that also minimizes the need for isolating your neighbours from your listening.
Obviously, room treatments would improve things, but if the speakers aren't going to sound good without them, I'm not going to buy them, because I'm not doing any room treatments. Then again, what counts as good or not is subjective, anyway. I've read plenty of impressions from those who feel certain studio monitor speakers sound fine just plopped on a desk. But I haven't done much research into speakers, so I wouldn't be confident at all buying them at this point.
