I am building a screen wall and would like to put the center speaker behind the screen. I do not have the room to bring the wall out 24". My question is how close can the speaker be to the screen. If I build the wall out about 12" the speaker will be about 2" to 3" from the screen.

What material is your screen?

If its SMX, I believe they tested it and there is no distortion even within the 2-3 inches.

Stewart recommends 12" from speaker to screen for thier microperf screens.