S5 owners. - How far from the back wall
 

I have a pair of S5s arriving next week, and since they weigh almost 200 pounds each I want the first setup to be close to the final setup. Since they are sealed speakers I am wondering if placement from the back is as critical as with ported speakers. What distance from the front baffle to the rear wall do you suggest?

If you are going after toner balance and imaging. there is no difference in the setup between the sealed box and ported. They are all box speaker.

Bud, I think the fact the S5's are a sealed box does make them easier to place. Certainly review commentary suggests they are easier to place than many other speakers such as the Wilson Alexia's. I have a challenging room as the area behind my speakers is not even, so in my situation it was an important consideration to have speakers which were non-critical with placement. I took some measurements of the distance behind my speakers. There is 450mm to the hot water cupboard behind my LH speaker, whilst there is 280mm to the diagonal steel support beam behind my RH speaker, otherwise 1170mm to the rear wall. I have my S5's placed along the long wall in a near field listening position as per the Cardas Room Setup Guide. With my open hardwood stairs & atrium, somehow it all works well. But I think the S5's non-critical nature helps. The Cardas Setup guide is a good starting point, but if you have a bit more freedom you could get your room professionally measured to guide to you find the best room placement for both your speakers and listening position. I have less options, so I focused more on getting the distances right between my speakers in relation to the listening position. I attached a couple of photos of my room showing the speaker positioning.

Cheers,

Congrats Bud. I hope you will enjoy the S5. Yes, I agree with David that the S5, being a sealed box design, is easier to position. Certainly I found it easier than my previous Wilson which is a ported design. Martine Colloms in his review, also commented similarly (see http://www.bm.rs/Magico/Magico%20S-5...DEC%202013.pdf). I position mine ~3 ft from the front wall (measured from the back of the speaker). The speakers are also ~3 ft from the respective side walls. They are ~8.5 ft apart. I haven't experimented with positioning seriously yet and the speakers are still not on their spikes. But already, the bass performance - definition, tightness and coherence with the midrange - is very good and most enjoyable.:music:

Mr room isn't huge (~16x18') but mine are 21" to the rear of the speaker from the back wall. Tight, tuneful, sound amazing!

3-5 feet from the back wall is a good start. But there is no generic answer, it really depends on the room. You clearly want to make measurements of the bass response, and play around , moving speakers a few inches at a time. When you have found the position with the flatter bass response, then you can spike your speakers. It is not so difficult, in less than 2hrs you are done. Strongly suggest you go through this procedure AFTER you finish break in (normally >1000 hours, but at >500 hours you are already 90% there) - just let them play continuously at normal level (no burn in CD which can kill drivers!!, the only one I would recommend is Isotek full system enhancer, at moderate to normal listening volume).

Keep also in mind that even more important than distance from back wall is overall symmetry. Width and precision of your imaging is strongly influenced by how symmetric is your overall set up (i.e., same distance from side walls, same distance from back wall, listener at same distance from side walls, etc)
hope it helps

jazzman, thanks for the good advice. I don't have symmetry in the listening area, which is about 16' x 17.5', but with one side opening to another area near the rear. I use minor difference in toe-in to provide some (but not adequate) compensation. Would using diffusors help? At least I may need one behind my listening position, as I sit quite close to the back wall.

I had mine about 34" from the wall, after reading this thread, I moved them back to about 29" and about 7' 6" apart. This may seem a bit close, but they have never sounded better.

Thanks. This is good info, and gives me a starting point. My room is most certainly unbalanced in that the left speaker will be about three feet from the side wall, while the right speaker is a loooong way from the side wall. The living room blends into the kitchen/dining area on the right. To be honest, with my current Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers, it works quite well.

Bud,
Check out Acoustic Geometry curve diffusers to place beside the speakers. They worked wonders for my Magicos, as they are placed asymmetrical, yet image wonderfully AFTER the diffusers were in place. ASC bass traps and Mondo traps work for the bass as well. You are in for a treat. As an aside, after I added Shunyata Alpha power cords and Hydra Cyclops to the system, the S5 became much more resolving- closer to the Q resolution but still more musical to me IMHO. Is the Vega still sounding great?
Barry