Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater M22 or qS4 for rears

My current setup is m60's in the front an M22 as a center and Mirage Omnisats as rears. And my sub is an HSU VTF-2v3. I am thinking of chucking the Mirages for either Qs4's or getting another M22 and a VP100. I would then use the two M22's for rears. My area is fairly small and I probably will stick to a 5.1 system. I listen to music 80% of the time. If you suggest staying with the M22 how would I set it up. My couch backs up on the rear wall and the right side of my room is completely open, so I would have no place to hang a speaker. The left side has a wall on the side. Would it be best to have the speakers facing to the side or frontward?

Another M22 would work(rumor has it direct speakers work better for music than the QS series but I like my QS's) and what about using stands for those surround M22s slightly toed in from either side of the couch.

Is that the front of the couch or side of the couch? If it's at the side I would have to mount one and put one on a stand (right)

Eddie, although you refer to "rears", keep in mind that in a 5.1 setup these are actually side surrounds, and in theory should be directly to the side of the listening position. Nevertheless, in the absence of back speakers(as would be present in 7.1)it's suggested that they be positioned slightly(maybe 2')farther back than directly to the side, to lend a little more back effect.

For the best reproduction of the ambience in music using DPLII, etc. and good performance on discretely placed musicians or other sounds when playing 5-channel material the QS4s should fit your situation very well. They should be mounted on the back wall(facing frontward)about 3' above ear level and separated as widely as possible, nearly to the left wall and a similar distance to the right.

That's pretty much the way I set up my mirage omnisats. My question is if I go with the M@@'s would I set them up the same way?

Yes, they can be set up the same way. The M22s have mounting bolts on the back just for this purpose.

If you went with M22 surrounds because you wanted a more direct sound effect than with the QS4s, the positioning should be equally wide but the M22s should face inward toward the listeners to maximize the directness of the sound and for the same reason could be mounted a little lower so as to be closer to ear level.

Should the M22's be face down or should the tweeters be ear level. If I did this, this would allow me to place the M22's under the omnisats on the back wall and allow me to switch off using the Omnisats for HT and the M22's for Music. Does this make sense?

Eddie, again if you're looking for more direct sound from the surrounds by using M22s, then certainly they shouldn't be positioned face down, which would tend to diffuse the sound. Yes, if you want to maximize the directness the tweeters should be placed at ear level, just as is optimal for the mains. I'll just mention that in my listening to classical music the surrounds contain only general ambience, not discrete direct instrumental positioning, so I want a widely dispersed rather than direct presentation for this.