Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Stinkin side surrounds...

To start things off regarding my theatre room layout, I had made 3d models, excel spreadsheets, and even asked you all what you thought about the 2 row layout and side surrounds.

Well, last night I was looking at the diagram again (again, yes...) and pretty much decided against 7.1...as a result of reading a thread here on Axiom (Axiom boards seem to be the worst for changing my setup!)...so Now I had a choice, to leave the side surrounds where I have them (1 foot behind front row and 4 feet in front of the second row) or compromise.

I decided to move my wires back 1.5 feet to make the side surrounds 2.5 feet behind the front row and 2.5 feet in front of the second row.

Sheesh, will the 1.5 foot difference really matter? who knows, all I know is that I had to drill through the drywall and through a stud on one side in order to pull the cable back so that the side surrounds were 4 ft from the back of the room. Then I had to drill ANOTHER hole on that same side in order to get the wire where I wanted it. Good thing I left alot of slack on the wire when I pulled it. I fished it with a coat hanger ITs safe to say my wife thought I was pretty crazy moving the QS8s back 1.5 feet...she just sat there watching my like I was the biggest idiot, good times!

Just wondering if any of you guys were this obsessed over your room layout? I just want all the rows to enjoy the movies, I didn't want to have the back row totally suck with the side surrounds 4 feet in front of them...

As it stands, the 2.5 feet in front and behind is 20 degrees in front and behind of the listening positions (respectively).

Once my speakers arrive I will do a test for sure to see what its like to have the surrounds 2.5 feet in front as opposed to 2.5ft behind the primary seating position.

The good thing is that my back wall is only 4 feet from the side surrounds, so hopefully the back row will get some nice reflections.

Not really expecting alot of replies, just felt like I needed to vent a bit! After all this changing stuff around, I am getting pretty good at filling in holes and mudding! (I did the same thing with the rear surround wires about 3 weeks ago)

Hutzal, before we wired our media room, i considered the relative locations for speakers on the walls. Knowing i would not know what the sound would be like until everything was put together, i could only make an educated guess for the locations.
I left out the idea of mounting a permanent speaker wire recepticle to provide some leeway in locating a final spot for the surrounds.
Some may say the little string of wire coming out of the wall box does not look finished, but if you paint it the same colour as the wall and pull it snug, no one would really notice it much.
Some people are sticklers about not seeing anything at all, but personally i think ours looks just fine. For the decreased hassle in what you are going through, it might be worth thinking about (leaving a small wire run visible or even using a short piece of wire track from the wall box to the speaker).

See pics and note that i have NOT yet painted the speaker wire the same as the walls. It is a light blue while the wall is a dolphin gray.

I have actually considered using wall plates. If I need to move the speakers back yet further after all is said and done, I will have to use wall plates.

Thanks for the pics, Its nice to know what it would look like (as I was wondering what wall plates beside the speakers would look like).

Just curious - If sitting in the second row, how realistic is the effect with the surrounds AHEAD of you? I guess I'm having a hard time getting my head around it.

I had always assumed I would put the side surrounds just slightly behind the 2nd row. OR, do two sets of side surrounds - but that brings me back to my original question.

Well if you do that, then the first row will have pretty much crap side surrounds because they will be too far back (6 feet back from the front row doesn't sound to appealing).

Dolby Digital states that the surrounds can be placed up to 20 degrees in front or behind the listener...which I am trying to stay inside of.

Utilizing the QS8s, you can get good, ambient sound. The second row will most likely not even know that the surrounds are in front of them (if what I hear about the QS8s are true).

It basically comes down to what row I will be sitting in most (which will be the front row). Ideally 2 sets of side surrounds would be best, but my little 14x16 room most def. does not need 2 sets of side QS8s!!! Perhaps when I get in a 25 x 16 room, I will get 2 sets of QS8s for my 2 rows, but not until then...

I will probably experiment with the placement and see what exactly sounds the best.

I KNEW i saw a post from Alan saying something like this...

(This is actually the post)

"The QS4s or QS8s are extremely accommodating to eccentric or asymmetrical placement. Even Dolby Labs says a range of 15 degrees forward of or to the rear of a horizontal line drawn across your listening area is quite acceptable." -Alan

Mine are around 20 degrees, I really don't think it will be a problem...phew, just re-asuring myself...I guess I can always just wait until early next week to find out

How long from the shipping date do the speakers arrive?

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How long from the shipping date do the speakers arrive?

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about 4-5 business days, unless they get misrouted then add a couple more.

Why compromise at all? Go with 9.1.

.1? Feh. If you want an authentic reproduction, each channel needs a dedicated sub. 9.9 all the way!