Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater QS8s for side AND rear surrounds

Hey Axiom owners, I am really looking for the most immersive surround experience. Right now I have small klipsch surrounds for the side and rear that have 2 woofers which fire out at 45 degree angles and one horn tweeter which fires in the center. The surround field is OK but I am just looking for more immersion.
Does anyone have the QS4s or QS8s as both side and rear surrounds? What is the best option? My room is about medium size and I have a good 5-6 feet behind my listening area
Thanks

A lot of us use Q's all the way around and it is awesome. The main goal is that you have enough room behind the seating area to justify "rear" surrounds, sounds like you do. For 7.1, the "side" surrounds should be directly to the side of the seating area.

The design of the Axiom 4 driver speakers envelopes you completely.

I think QSx'ss all round are recommended unless you have enough distance behind the seating area that room reflections will have a chance to diffuse the sound from the rear speakers.

I have something like 9 feet between seating and rear speakers which should be enough for direct (M2) speakers to work well. If I ever get my 7.1 receiver back from repair I'll be able to report on how it works

With 5-6ft behind you I think you can use direct radiators and see if you like them better than the more diffuse sound from the mult-pole speakers like your current ones or the QS's. Some people find the rear channels less effective with diffuse speakers.

I've tried a pair of M60s in place of our rear QS8s surrounds and preferred the four QS8s over the QS8s sides/M60s back combo ... all surround speakers are 7' distance from the sides and to the rear of the seating.

You're just not some people Rick

I've got QS8's all around in a less than ideal room position. [Room is 19 x 25 and the HT is laid out on the short side, meaning that we sit really close to the TV - 11' - but still have 5.5' to the back wall. The side QS8's are 25' apart. All those odd distances are taken care of in the setup using a good sound meter. The mains are toed in to take care of the short distance and really help with off-center seating - the guy sitting on the left can hear the right main almost as well as the left main.]

Sorry, back on topic. When all speakers are in play it's absolutely amazing, you can't pick out any one surround speaker. I'd say go for it.

Scott

My side speakers are 2 ft behind the listening position (8-10 ft from the back wall). That would mean my sides are at least 6 ft from the back wall. Have they been in the wrong spot all this time? Am I loosing performance?

I was confused with the placement of the sides. I thought they should be 2 ft behind the listening position with 7.1.

Errrrrr....

I think you'll be good with that location Cam, most articles suggest anywhere from 90-135 degree angle from the seating for the side surrounds in a 7.whatever setup....

Thanks, Rick. I'll try to get the exact measurements today, just to be sure.

Cam that should be 90-110 degrees from the seating as the picture depicts and not the 90-135 degrees I first posted. Coffee didn't kick in yet.

Ours are slightly back, maybe 100 degrees or so and I've never noticed anything negative sonically, also with the QS speakers being as flexible with placement as they are it should help even more.

Really, it's just a matter of degrees....

Having the sides slightly back helps for 5.1 content. But if you always use something like Prologic IIx, or NEO:6 having them closer to in a line with the ears does make noticing surround effects easier. Human ears work best from the front to the sides, their ability to discern directionality falls off as sounds move behind the head.

My sides are about 2ft back from the main listening position, but about 3ft ahead of the 2nd row of seating. It's a compromise I think you have to make with multiple row seating.

Cam, this isn't highly critical, especially with the QSs, but in a 7.1 setup where there're actual back speakers to provide the back surround effect, the side surround speakers are best positioned directly to the side(the 90 degree angle in the diagram). In a 5.1 setup, putting the side surrounds a couple feet farther back(similar to the 110 degree angle)lends a little "phantom" back surround effect in the absence of actual back speakers.

As mentioned I wouldn’t get to worried about exact angles especially with the QS8s. The best thing I’ve found is to play around with positioning since no 2 rooms are the same. If you don’t want to play around with placement then anything close to the Dolby diagram or this DSX one will work fine:

http://www.avguide.com/blog/playback-learns-about-audyssey-dsx-part-3?page=1