Quote:

They sound different than my friends. We're both using Onkyo 801's. His room is carperted with wood shutters and a 9 foot ceiling.


This is not surprising.
I've had my entire Axiom setup in three different locations now and the sound varied amongst each room. Our old basement room was the worst for acoustics. We had a bit of trouble trying to get imaging to work properly because of the limited space. Given the large size of your room this should not be a problem and it should allow for more successful tweaking of speaker placement. Try rearranging the locations of surrounds and mains based on the numerous suggestions already listed in the forums or in Alan's monthly Audiofile articles.
The direct firing speaker may not provide a solution over the QSx surround design.

To date my personal opinion is that large, hard walled rooms with little absorption points which are highly reflective are not particularly flattering to creating a nice sound for music. I know, i have one.

"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."