Hi Jim!
Glad you finally got them and are happy! I'm sure you'll love them, I have the sellers remorse already, no good speakers here at the moment.

With subs, I left the Nerf balls in all the time and was considering sealing them complete. When I didn't have the subs, I took the balls out to give a bit more bass energy. Play around with them. Maybe balls in for bass heavy music or music with no bass anyway, where you don't want more bass and really want mid clarity, and balls out for music that needs help in the bass or when you want to rock out. They can do pretty good deep bass either way but the flavor changes with balls in or out.
I had them only about a foot away from the wall for most of the time but pulled them out about 4-5 ft for special occasions. Slight toe in as Kent suggests, and I was careful to get the drivers centers at ear level which helped a lot with clarity of the upper mids/treble.
I love the idea of Roy's sand filled bases too.

Happy listening!