Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Mounting QS8 on the back wall

Hello guys,
I am in a bit of a jam here. I am planning on going with QS8s. My little home theatre is going to be in my living room (too small a house to have a dedicated HT room). But thats not all. My living room and dining are together and they are more like one large room. One half of it is where I have my flat panel on the wall. In front of that TV, along the width of the room is the couch which is the main listening position. I have a sidewall on one side but sidewall on the other side is pretty far (length of the room). I am planning on mounting the QS8s on the back wall with some kind of brakets (stands for QS8 are quite expensive). is that a reasonable approach or I am going to kill the surround effect by having srrounds on the back wall.
Thanks

I don't think you'll kill it. I tried that in my largish space and the effect was quite good with the QS8s. In a smaller space, I don't think it will be a problem at all.

I would just use the flush mount T bracket that comes with the QS8's.

I have my QS8's on the back wall and they sound great, see link below:

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=13524&Number=189625#Post189625

The far seat on the love seat is kind of odd because it is so far away from the right surround, but the left surround is directly above you- the other seat on the love seat is decent. this is not a big deal b/c i really don't have that many people over when watching movies

All seats on the couch sound excellent.

I had to mount my QS8 speakers on the rear wall and my couch was pushed right up against that same wall. While it wasn't ideal, it did work pretty well.

Since then, I've made a dedicated theater room and put them on the side walls.

Check out my (old) home theater at NickBuol's (old) Home Theater as I think that there are some pictures in the gallery showing them mounted on the back wall.

I'm in the same boat regarding the back wall location, and am quite happy with them there. My neighbour has essentially the same layout, but with a set of Paradigm dipoles, and he always comments on how much better my surrounds are.

See this thread for pics.

Shawn, did you ever remedy the TV situation in that room?

The QS8s are indeed a wonderful complement to the M80s.

I'd like to know who at Axiom came up with the brilliant QS8 concept.

Ah, I would like to say that there is a 52" plasma now mounted on the wall, but I'd be lying.

Thanks Tom for grinding that one in......

I'm here for you, buddy.

Re: OP - I had the QS8's on the back wall in a different room once upon a time. Sounded just great.

just great, is that all?

K, so I feel fine about putting my QS8s up on the back wall. How high should they be from the floor.
Thanks to all who gave their comments.

On height, I think you'll find they're incredibly flexible. Keep them above ear height when seated for sure. In my theater, I've found that they sounded good anywhere from around 5' from the floor up to around 7', where I have them now. The key is to leave adequate spacing from the ceiling above them (at least 6-12" IMO). The reason I went higher is to keep people from bumping into them when walking through the room and to keep kids (or other unruly guests) from grabbing/poking/prodding them in the future.

Syed, since you're sitting very close to the wall behind you, there's very little difference between having the QS8s mounted on the side walls slightly farther back than directly to the side, and mounting them on the back wall spread very widely(almost to the side walls or where the side wall would be). Place them about 2-3' above ear level and at least a few feet to the outside of the listening position on each side.

Mine are about 6 feet off of the floor.

Mine are about 6'2" off the floor; I don't care if people taller than me bump their heads.

Peter was able to steer clear. Crafty devil.

I tried mine at at 6" intervals from 4'-7' from floor level.To me they sounded best when placed 5' and above, finally mounted them at 6.5'.

Great!!
Thanks everyone for pitching in..

Not to hijack the thread, but I have a similar situation. So side walls, just a back wall.
A positive is that a main viewing area is the backwall.

My AVR is capable of 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1. Needless to say, going 7.1 isn;t going to offer anything with this room layout.

Would 6.1 offer some advantage? The distance between the outside "surrounds" would be about 12 ft I would guess

bump?

The distance between my outside surrounds is 25 feet. I notice very little difference with my two rear QS8s. Maybe I'd notice a bigger difference if I had direct radiators in the back like M22s or M3s. Disclaimer: I have a very live room.

The best suggestion I can make is put the wiring in and try it for yourself.

If you are interested in stands someone posted pictures of some fantastic DIY QS8 stands a while back but I can’t find the link maybe someone else can post it. Otherwise many of us have our QS8s on or near the back wall and they sound fantastic. I actually prefer them farther back than the recommended 90-110 degrees.

I noticed a difference in going to a 6.1 from 5.1 but my situation is not a normal rectangle, I am based on a diagnoal and the LR is actually more forward from one couch and vice versa for the other sitting position, the center rear really helped give more depth and direction to the surrounds for me.

To revisit this discussion, how close can a QS8 be to a corner before it begins to suffer?

Am thinking of mounting them on the wall behind the sofa, but the sectional backs right up to the wall and just curious as to how to deal with that.

Lase, as long as the QS8s have a little room so that the tweeter closer to the side wall can "bounce" sound off the side wall, it should be okay; 6" should be enough. They should also be 2' or so above ear level.

Hmmm. Why is Axiom's stand for the QS's only 38" high? Seems like it should be more like 60".

Aesthetics and safety, I would guess if a stand were that tall it would look very odd in the middle of a room where a stand would be needed opposed to wall mounting. A stand of that height would need a very large base to be stable.

My seating is going to be pretty much against he back wall, which is why the QX8's are so appealing to me -- conventional wisdom seems to be that conventional speakers / direct radiators work best for surrounds when they can be more distant from the listener. I see two potential issues with wall mounting:

1) Gotta do something with the cables - with a stand I could at least run them down the pipe to the floor

2) Figuring out a proper mounting location without punching repeated holes in the brand-new walls.

I ran the speaker wire for my surrounds under the carpet along the baseboard- I used a small round cable raceway from lowes to run the cable from the ground up to the QS8's which are 6 ft high... It sticks to the wall and looks pretty good when painted the color of the wall (it is not painted in the pics). Not as nice as running the cables through the wall/attic but I am in a rent house.

FYI- my surrounds are on the back wall and my couch is against the back wall as well- sounds great.

Pics of my surrounds/couch can be seen in the thread below
http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189721&fpart=1

Don't panic when you see the ugly green wallpaper- it has been removed and the updated kitchen can be seen in this thread:
http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=194004&fpart=4

Another option is the flat speaker wire Axiom sells, it can be painted as well.

If you went with flat speaker wire I would mud over the wire and lightly sand it down before painting it

Big opening to the rest of the place on one side, floor to ceiling glass on the other, and hardware floors in between. http://www.magnolialofts.com/slideshow/index.html Photo gallery, #7-9,11-12. Everything but the QS8's will go into the alcove. Maybe I can run the QS8 wires above the slider and below the arched window .... still debating whether M60's will suffice here or if I need to pass the point of no return and go with M80's and a 3808.

Wow, you have an amazing house... def. an acoustical nightmare though!

I can tell you that the M80's and the 3808 work extremeley well together.

I think whatever you decide to get will be fine. Your guests will be so busy checking out your cool house they won't even notice the speakers!

Yeah well it's a @Q#$# townhouse :-/

Why is it an acoustical nightmare? What am I likely to discover?

I just think that you will have some challenges with the open floor plan, high ceilings, and hard wood floors.

I have no personal experience with any of those features- I just hear that they can create some challenges.

Basically you have a very bright acoustical environment. What you will likely find is that if you turn your volume up too much, the sound will get "muddy". The advantage is that a half watt nominal is likely plenty loud .

Bright because of the hardwood floor? We'll probably throw some rugs on it at some point.

You essentially have a very open and bare, hard-surfaced environment. Higher frequency sound waves will bounce around for a while before dissipating. And depending on how stiff your walls are, the low frequency sound waves will bounce around too.

Other than running an AVR's auto-setup, what would I do to improve the acoustics?

Thats one sweet place you have. I'm sure others with more expierence will have accustical suggestions.

Thanks. Wish the bedrooms were big enough to put a bed in tho ...