Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Got Qs8's, sound coming from above, is that good?

Okay I have my qs8 temporarily place on the side walls about 5 foot off the floor = 2 1/2 feet above ear level when sitting down

They are 3 foot from the back wall and I have 13 foot ceiling at the point on the wall in where the qs8 is mounted (as that is where my sloped cathedral ceiling hits its peak)

What is happening is I'm getting a phantom rear center channel from the speakers but the sound seems to be coming from above, almost like I have a monopole speaker place on the back wall like 8 foot up in the air pointed down at my listening postion...

I'm gonna experiment with moving them up higher on the walls, but I was wondering if the phantom rear center should sound more directly behind me versus more up above me and to the rear ?

Also if I raise the speakers does that mean the phantom rear center will seem to elevate higher up into the room as they qs8's are raised ?

Also if I lower them , does it lower the phantom rear center channel ?

would appreciate some feedback,
Halo

It sounds like you're getting some strange reflections. I'd definitely try moving your QS8s up by about a foot or forward or backward around 6" to see if that helps.

How are they "temporarily" placed? On stands? On a shelf? Do you have at least three inches of clearance for the down-firing driver on the bottom of the QS8?

^ They are temporarily placed on speaker brackets that I had my monopoles on, don't worry they are not solid on the bottom and the woofer is not being obstructed...


Surely someone can give me some feedback considering alot of people here say they own qs8's...

In reply to:

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...if I raise the speakers does that mean the phantom rear center will seem to elevate higher up into the room as they qs8's are raised ...Also if I lower them , does it lower the phantom rear center channel?

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My guess is yes. You have them mounted per Dolby recommendations, but sometimes you must experiment. I'd suggest trying some different positions, first lower, then forward/backward a little. If you're careful you can place them on a stack of boxes, bookcase, etc. for the tests. Rotate the QS8 90 degrees to avoid blocking the bottom driver when doing this. But be careful -- it tips over easily in that configuration.

Halo,

There is a lot of good advice here about placement of the QS8s. They should not produce the effect you are hearing, which makes me wonder what you are using as test material.

My first thought is you may be listening to old Dolby Surround material, perhaps in a ProLogic mode (not in DPLII). The surround channel in Dolby Surround and the old ProLogic format is MONO, even though it was reproduced by two speakers.

If was a huge problem with domestic home theater using monopole surrounds--they would image the surround channel in the center of your head above you. It's why THX developed the dipole standard for their surrounds as well as processing of the mono surround channel to insert difference information to avoid that problem.

I have never heard QS8s behave in the manner you describe when used with true Dolby Digital 5.1 or DPLII or Logic7 decoded material.

What are you listening to? What mode are you using?

Regards,

Thanks for responding alan...


First of all I have a mode on my nad receiver called enhanced stereo 2, it basically switches the rears and fronts so I'm hearing what I would normally hear out of my front mains...

Secondly I have been running cd's and a dts demo disc with 5.1 music on it, but I'm running them in the enhanced stereo 2 so it keeps the surrounds having voice and instrument effects at all times versus movies where the surrounds are used here and there...

The voice is what is I'm primarily getting in the phantom center channel when listening to music...

Is this a wrong way to go about it ?

Secondly (below) this is a older picture with my old monopoles and you can see how the back of my living roomm is unfortantely laid out

Hmm. If that's what you're doing, it doesn't surprise me too much; it's working as it's supposed to. If that sound that's being piped to the rears was piped to the fronts, then you would have a phantom center up front. I imagine that the quadpole nature of the rears causes it to appear higher than it would normally.

Of course, I'm pulling this all out of my ass...

Hi,

Yes, you are going about this the wrong way. Don't use that enhanced stereo mode, because it will indeed route the vocals into the QS8s. If you are running conventional stereo material or the 5.1 recordings in NAD's "enhanced" stereo mode, then the QS8s would theoretically image the way you describe it. That isn't how they are intended to be used.

If any of the NAD modes route main- or center-channel stuff into the QS8s, then that's what will happen.

Why not play back the material the way it was intended? Or use Dolby Pro Logic II to decode the stereo CDs into quasi 5.1? DPLII will route ambient material into the QS8s and leave vocals in the front center (roughly) where they belong.

Regards,

Okay, I was just using music like I said versus running movies cause its easier to keep sound constant out of the rears...

I'll run the pro logic music mode and see what results I yield...

Thanks,
Halo