The stud wall scuppers the SL2 idea, new scuppers the Wilsons too. Oh well, good luck with the Focals or whatever.
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My Kudos S20’s are 7" from the back (solid) wall and work well at that distance.
I’ve not tried them further away as this would not be acceptable to us but the balance sounds right to me.
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Thanks Yeti 
Nothing wrong with secondhand speakers from an unknown person as long as you can verify that they are in full working order, which you do by making sure you hear them. it’s not like a car that may have been thrashed within an inch of its like then everything glossed over, to die a week after you get it! Personally I like the added buying power, but of course your preference is yours.
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I agree. My current speakers are ex demo. The dealer has OCD and never let’s anyone else touch his stuff. Good man!
Me i would listen to the new speakers for a week and then put back mine.
Funnily enough I do have concerns with second hand speakers that are in some ways similar to the car analogy - namely that if they have been played at (over)loud volume for a considerable time that this might reduce their lifespan or diminish their quality. Probably no basis for this I guess…
Demo speakers are fairly likely to have run amps into clipping, I’ve done it a couple of times when I had the Rega Maia which tended to run out of current reserves when given some work to do despite having the same rated output as a 250 (which doesn’t run into clipping even with much greater provocation). There are a pair of maple Thiel CS1.6 somewhere and some Focal Electra 1007Be out there I’d rather not own myself. Orchestral music was involved in both cases.
The biggest change to my setup was when I re-arranged the room so the speakers could be 50cm from back and side walls. The best single thing I’ve done to improve listening in the last 6 years! On the downside it actually made me notice the deficiencies in my Proacs and that caused a speaker change but a couple of months later the net result is now much better all round.
solwisesteve…I’d love to pull my speakers forward, but they’d be way too close the hot seat
An update to my post:
The demo speakers have arrived from the dealer, but minus the spikes! Not too much of an issue as they’re being sent out pronto. A bit of a ball ache as I’m having to fit/share the spikes between the two pairs of speakers.
Can anyone advise what are the main benefits of spikes on speakers (floor standers or speaker stands) and the implications of not using them?
The demo so far…First pair of speakers the vocals are slightly better, but the second pair had a slight overall sound improvement. Hope that makes sense. 
Hi Richard - I would message you but we don’t have that facility anymore. I wanted to ask you, how much of an improvement were your S20s over your old A5s? I am actually demoing S20s right now! 
Regards
The S20’s are well ahead of the A5’s as you would expect given the price difference. I actually moved to C20’s first and these were well ahead too.
I was also wary of going further with a power amp upgrade with the A5’s. A couple of dealers I spoke to felt that a 250 (non DR at that time) would have overdone the already exuberant bass of the A5’s. I has the bass under control just in my room but it wouldn’t have taken much to make it too much. Something others have reported issues with too kuch bass from these rear ported speakers.
Thanks Richard for explaining that.
A quick update: Ended up demoing Kudos S20s and Titan 606s, against my PMC Twenty5.26. Well, it only took half a dozen tracks, the Kudos Titan 606s blew the PMCs and S20s clean out of the water. Night & day…So a happy ending.
Thanks everyone for your kind comments and suggestions.
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I think Kudos are the leader of the pack from T505 to the sublime T808
for me the T505 will be coming in to my system when I can, having said that those T606 as superb
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