Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Cherry up front - Maple in the Rear

My home decor is mostly dark cherry woods - and my walls are pale yellow and white (looking off white). I am going to be placing my surrounds on the wall (either with the FMBs or directly to the wall), and my fronts will hopefully match nicely with my TV cabinet. I am sure that many of you may have similar WAF issues, with surround speakers placed on the walls - mine wants them to blend in (I could care less...). Have any of you thought about buying (or have any of you actually bought) cherry front speakers and maple rears. This is purely a cosmetic issue, I know. I was just curious as to what your input may be on if this would look funny or not.

Also, do the QS8's leave a much larger footprint than the QS4's, so as to make them less ubtrusive on the walls?

The room dimensions are around 17 X 12, and the walls are a pale yellow with white dental molding.

I don't think it would that funny, after all the rears are some distance away from the mains. For an idea of what the QS8's look like check out my pics at http://www3.telus.net/public/jklasher/speaker%20pictures.htm

I originally was going to get cherry for the M60s and VP150 and a lighter color(either maple or a custom color)for the QS8s because I thought my wife would want the surrounds to blend in also.

As Gomer Pyle said, "Surprise, surprise, surprise". She didn't care and thought that no matter what we did, we would see them anyway, so why not have all of them match. And the cherry looks better with our furniture. Gotta love her!

Jake - Your pictures actually inspired me to think about this solution earlier today. BTW - Love the way yours look! Didn't think that I would dig on the Maple - but they really look awesome in your living room.

I also agree with you, though, JSkip - I am also leaning towards getting all the same finish and just accepting the fact (let me rephrase - hope my wife will just accept the fact) that speakers hanging on the wall a necessary evil.

It'll be a tough choice. I may regret one-day not having a matching set....but I think the maple will blend in better in the meantime (with the tan grille)

I have cherry across the front (M60's & VP150)and I originally ordered maple QS8 surrounds with tan grills. I struck a deal with my better half in that I could hang speakers on the wall if they matched the decor, our living room walls are a grayish/white and the trim is bright white, therefore the surround speakers are to be white (according to the boss). Looking at the Axiom web page the maple finish appeared to have a whitish finish so we took a gamble and ordered maple. We received the order and well the maple finish wasn't exactly white but more of a natural wood or pickled oak finish. I thought they were pretty sharp looking, but the wife thought otherwise. Ended up special ordering eggshell white finish QS8's with eggshell white grills. Have to admit they do look better, but it will cost you $95.00 for the special finish. Axiom even personalizes each one with your name being printed on the speaker ID tag.

Alright - so the Maple might not exactly match the decor. I was thinking that this might be an issue - if the wood was more like a pickled oak. What, then, do you guys think about painting these beauties? Is that sacrilege? I know it would not affect sound. But, if I'm gonna pay extra for an eggshell finish, why not just order outlet stuff (trying to save some cash here) and paint them myself?

Tide - I guess my question for you is: Does the eggshell look much better than painting it might? (assuming I do a reasonably good job and don't do something stupid liek paint the cones...).

Another thought - Do any of you Cherry owners think that you coudl paint your cherry QSs and have them look good. I'm thinking - this way, I can have a matching set of cherry's, check out how they look on the walls (spend a week with them up and see if I get used to them), and if not, then I go ahead and paint them?

Oh just apply another coloured vinyl, might be a lot easier than painting.

How would one go about applying another colored vinyl? Fordprefect, can you go into more detail? If you think this might be a better alternative, I'd be interested.

I also considered the painting option, but decided against it. You would probably have to remove the drivers or do a good job of masking them, also I was't sure if painting would void my warranty(would check with Axiom). I think if you did a reasonably good paint job they would look fine, especially if you are wall mounting, stand mounting would be more at eye level and any flaws would be easier to notice. The eggshell finish does have a sight texture to it which you could also duplicate. Have you thought about the grill colors? I think Axiom would gladly swap the grills out if you decided to paint.