Thanks for the advice guys. But remember that I will not be putting any preamp in this room that doesn't support HDMI. It's unfortunate that Rotel and Outlaw (among others that I can't remember right now) don't have pieces that have HDMI in or out. I'm sure their engineers are designing and/or building new models that will and those pieces will be on the market within the next year or so. Those are still brands for me to consider since I have that much time.
I'm doing my homework to be ready to do this whole thing right the first time. What alot of this will undoubtedly boil down to is in-home auditions once the room is complete. Unless I can find someone with the exact same room dimensions and speakers I want to use, I'm probably going to have to play around with surround-speaker locations. So those speakers will probably have to be on stands. That's not a huge deal for me, but aesthetically I would rather have my QS8s wall mounted (maybe ceiling mounted, but that may be too high).
At this point, I am leaning toward the M80 since I will be running separates and the amp should have no trouble running the 4 ohm load with overheating. I'll also be going with the EP600 since I would like to stick with one sub.
Robert, thanks for the Satriani/Petrucci comments. That helps sell me on the Axiom product. Along with movies, I watch ALOT of concerts on DVD (Frampton, DT, Satriani/G3, Eagles, Eric Clapton, etc.). So being happy with the Axiom sound for that type of material is probably more important to me than movie watching. I have been wearing out my copy of G3 Live in Tokyo lately, but I'm only watching Petrucci doing "Glasgow Kiss" and "Damage Control". He played both of those in his set last month when I saw him in Denver for G3 with Satriani and Paul Gilbert--WOW!!. I'd love that one on DVD!! I loaned out my copy of DT "Score", so I haven't been able to watch that one lately.
Thanks for the time and input guys. I'd love some more. It is all welcome!!
