sly: here is what JC sent to me. I don't think that he would mind my posting it to this board.
"In a typical Home Theatre Application, you want the sound coming from the surround speakers to immerse you as much as possible. 99% of the time, you want to shy away from the acuity of a direct radiating speaker to avoid any possible chance to localise the emitting source of sound and destroy the enveloping sound field. You want and need some precision in the surround sound field but you don't want this precision to rob you of the sense of total immersion.
Axiom QS surround speakers are the perfect surround speakers. They will give you the maximum sound clues possible to create the perfect illusion of presence and will always prevent the introduction of information that could and would cause your immersion field to collapse. Axiom QS surround speakers are the ideal speakers to faithfully and exactly reproduce the movie sound engineer's intent.
Axiom M60Ti are speakers of exceptional qualities and virtues which for a Home Theatre surround sound field application will, unfortunately (in most cases), work against the desired results of the ideal surround sound field reproduction.
I also invite you to read Alan Lofft's opinion (my esteemed colleague and Axiom Senior Audio Expert) on this subject :
I also prefer QS8-type surrounds for music playback, because of the generous listening area they deliver while still retaining directional acuity for sounds or music hard-mixed to a rear channel. Others disagree on this point, believing that DVD-Audio and SACD multichannel music should be heard with direct-radiating rears. In my experience, QS8 type surrounds are superior for music because the "sweet spot" is not critical at all, whereas using direct radiators at the rear produces a very critical sweet spot. In my tests using direct-radiating rears with DVD-Audio and SACD, the illusion collapses to the nearest speaker when you shift your seat a foot or so. Using QS8s/QS4s, this doesn't happen.
Thanks again for your e-mail ! Please don't hesitate to contact me directly anytime - my contact information is below - or call the Axiom toll-free line at 1-866-244-8796 - any of our Audio Experts would be pleased to help."
