Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Room advice (speaker type and placement) W / pics

What are the room furnishings and drapes etc... going to be like ? I'm wondering (a) how live the room is going to be at the end, and (b) whether there will be drapes over the windows when listening.

I'm guessing (a) pretty live, and (b) no drapes, so one of the layout goals should be to avoid bouncing sound off the windows back to your ears.

I don't think I would even try 7.1 at first, just go with a nice 5.1 system. Running 7.1 with a 45 degree angle means at least one of your rear speakers is going to have to float in the middle of the floor or you're going to have to live with some pretty funky speaker distances.

I'm thinking M50 mains on the floor tucked at the sides of the fireplace (will they be out of the heat there ?), QS8s as surrounds mounted high -- one at the left end of what you call the front wall, and another about 8 feet in from the right end of the side wall with all the windows and doors. VP100 on top of the TV, angled down to point straight at the couch -- anything else is going to have the voices coming from the fireplace rather than the TV, and may barbequeue the center speaker as well.

For a sub I'm thinking one of the 10" Hsu or SVS, whatever you can get the best price on, taking advantage of the HK63x bass management to cross it over real low for the mains and let the 50s carry some of the load.

Going with M3 surrounds instead of QS8s would give you some more sub budget. You have a big listening area there so if you're going to have lots of places to sit then definitely go with QS8s -- if just a single couch then M3s would probably do very well.