Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Seeking Axiom upgrade advice Center or Rear?

I'm happy to say I'm an Axiom devotee for quite some time. I just bought a house and am upgrading my home theatre system to suit the new space.

I bought Axioms originally for my home theatre setup in the apartment we are moving out of. It's a small space so I opted for the following a couple of years ago (these are the components I have):
- 1 pair M1ti bookshelfs (front L and R)
- 1 VP 50 center
- 1 EP 125 subwoofer
- 1 pair QS2 (rear L and R)

For the new house I've upgraded my older 5.1 Teac AV reciever to a Harmon Kardon AVR 525 (7.1 surround which is capable of pushing 70 watts per channel at 8 ohms I believe).

Today I just purchased a beautiful pair of M60ti's, for two reasons: one, the importance of good loudspeakers, and two, my plan was to use the 2 existing M1ti bookshelfs as left and right surround.

I now have limited funds left for my upgrade and am looking for a recommendation on either upgrading my center channel VP50 to a VP150, or upgrading the QS2s to QS8s. Where is the best bang for my buck? Is the center channel worth the upgrade since more audio will pass through it? Or is a rear channel upgrade more important to balance off the bigger M60ti's I just bought?

Any and all advice appreciated - Thanks!

Personally I'd do the VP150 first. I do think many people discount the QS4s as quality surrounds also. I've got them with my M22s and VP150 and couldn't be happier.

Frank

I would probably opt for the centre channel myself. I don't believe you need overly large surround speakers to create a successful surround field, but that depends on your listening preference for sound level i suppose.
The QS8s were designed for larger rooms so if your room size has not changed significantly (you never mentioned the new room size), then your QS2s should still be quite adequate.

That's my ten cents.

I second the preceding opinions; I would first upgrade the center channel, too.

I'm pretty new to this HT business, and it wasn't my first priority, but I was told that the center channel is not the place to skimp. Makes sense - way more sound (important sound like dialogue) comes through that center channel.

Thanks all! Your opinions helped me make the decision - I upgraded the centre channel to a VP150.

As far as new room size goes it's about 15' wide by 20' long and a ceiling height of only 7'.

As someone with a 7.1 receiver, but only 2.1 speakers, I would think that it would be better to use the M1s as the rears, not the side surrounds. Wouldn't it be better to have more dispersal on the sides than the back?

Hmm... that actually makes a great deal of sense. I hadn't thought of that since I used the QS2's as my rear left and right channels in my apartment setup. They are multi-directional surrounds so reversing their planned position with the bookshelfs makes sense.

Any opinion on this from the group please? (Thanks again! This is extrememly helpful).

Agree with Ken. Put the QS2s on the sides opposite or even slightly in front of the seat and the M1s in back, separated by about the distance the seat is from the wall.