Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Custom-built QS-Series wall mounts?

Has anyone built a "mounting plaque" for their QS series surround?

I have an older house with horsehair plaster walls and, in my experience with previous wall-mounted items, the "T bracket" affixed to the wall will not be sufficient. I need to mount the T Bracket to a wooden "base" that will allow me to spread the weight and "pull" over a larger area so the vibrations won't simply turn the plaster to powder and weaken the mount as the speaker vibrates.

For instance, I'm wondering if there have ever been any experiments in terms of the size of a mount such as this. Are these speakers really so diffuse that there isn't much point-source imaging at all or the mounting makes very little difference? In short, would a speaker on a small, hidden mount, kind of "floating" the speaker out from the wall an inch, sound different from a speaker mounted on, say, an oversized plaque with a glossy, hard finish? Certainly, a "regular" speaker put along a sidewall with mirror tiles would image different than the same speaker along a wall that had heavy drapes along it's length. I guess that's what I'm wondering as it would relate to the QS series.

Also the plaster, being much harder than sheetrock (which dampens sound) is much more likely to "vibrate" when the QS8s are cranking. I'm wondering about putting some sort of a rubber or heavy foam "sheet" between the mount and the wall to help ensure there's no buzzing or other bad interactions.

I really won't be able to do much with the QS8s until I have this mount ready to go, so I'm hoping to get ahead of the game and pre-build them, just leaving finish decisions (I'm thinking I will match the Beech finish) and attaching the "T Mount" until the speakers arrive. Otherwise, I won’t be able to do anything with the surrounds for several days while I build and finish the mount.

Has anyone built a custom QS mount who would be willing to pass along some experience?

Hi Mark, I have a solution I used which may work for you. Take a look here .

Since I already had shelves (1" thick) that were made to match my custom TV stand AND the QS8s are very forgiving AND I didn't want to fool with wires/mounting stuff, I used the shelves.

The main issues were 1) avoiding angling the speakers in the corner (wanted them them flat against the wall), 2) assuring there was enough clearance on the sides of the speakers closest to the wall and 3) providing "breathing space" for the bottom woofer.

I went to a local Home Depot-type of store and found some hard rubber plumbing couplers that were tall enough (2"-21/2" I believe) to elevate the bottom woofer and firm/stable enough to support the weight of the speakers. I had seen some input from Alan that said 1" or more was sufficient for the bottom woofer. I am 3"-4" inches from the back wall and flush to the side wall. I figured I'd try it and if it didn't work, I could get involved with a more time consuming solution, although I REALLY wanted to avoid that if possible .

Summary - it has proven to be a terrific solution and they sound great. Any degradation of audio, if there was any to begin with, was overcome when I calibrated the speakers. I am still amazed with the sound coming from the QS8s and friends comment on them all the time. As an aside, one of the things I considered with this configuration was to cut a 3"-5" hole in each shelf under the woofer to allow the sound to escape through the bottom. Turns out it wasn't necessary.

I mention all of this because it may give you a more robust solution by being able to anchor shelves to the walls you described. Hope it's helpful.

Hi Ray- Thanks for the response!
That's the type of mount I was originally planning... more "shelf-like" than "plaque-mount" style. Interestingly, I had designed this originally: (Sorry about the poor image- I just needed something quick to bring to the workshop...)


but then starting thinking I really didn't need the support under the speaker... it could "hang" from the T Bracket if mounted to the "plaque".

Are the couplers that you're using attached to the shelf or speakers?

The couplers aren't attached to either. They are pretty substantial in their own right and are simply sitting on the shelf, with the speakers sitting on them. I was concerned that there might movement due to vibration, but the rubber couplers also appear to act as dampers and nothing has moved.

It's not a tremendously elegant solution, but it is functional. I like your design. Will you be able to adequately anchor into the wall with those things or would you be better having a shelf design and provide support underneath?

In looking at your potential solution, make sure you have enough room on either side for the couplings to sit under the speaker and be sure that the couplers are far enough out towards the sides to allow the woofer to work, i.e., you can't sit the edge of the woofer directly on the couplers.

This is probably difficult for you to visualize since you don't have your speakers yet. Once you get them, pull the bottom cover off the woofer and you'll see what I mean.

Also, have you considered floor stands? Axiom has them and there are some available at other places, including Parts Express. I chose not to use them because of my concerns with stability, height and space. Also, a crazed dog chasing a toy or an inquisitive child could wreak havoc. I have seen some stands that allow you to fill the base with birdshot or sand, but I'd still want to anchor them to the wall in some way. They also grow in expense as they get to be more substantial in design.

EDIT - I took another look at your design and mounting the plaque THEN mounting the bracket makes sense (I didn't think about that earlier). You are correct - your approach eliminates the need for support under the speakers. Keep in mind that using the T-bracket will require that you connect via bare wire (not much clearance for anything else). The only thing you need to worry about is hiding the wire, but you can always use wire channel and attach it to the wall.

Yes, I use a wire channel with my current setup. These are easily paintable and "disappear" pretty easily:


Although my old direct-radiating speakers were corner mounted, the next image is marked with my planned location for the QS8s. The sectional is up against the wall, so there's not room to put the QS8s "slightly behind" the listener. I have actually considered moving them a bit more rearward than the location shown, as I thought the rear-firing tweeter might bounce off that rear wall for even less directionality. Anyone have any thoughts with QS surrounds on side walls but near corners? Better a couple of inches from the corner or a couple of feet?:


Finally, since I took those photos, I figured I'd take one of the equipment:


This illustrates the problems I had written about regarding my limited positioning for the coming M60s. I have a closet (to the left as visible in the photo) that doesn't allow me to put the left speaker equidistant from the right one according to the monitor. For times when I'm actually sitting on the sectional and watching a DVD or critically listening, I drag the left speaker over to the left in front of the closet door. I just read something (from Alan maybe?) regarding M60s in corners as not ideal positioning. Unfortunately, I have no choice. I hope after all this waiting, I wouldn't have been better off with M22s!

Not visible in the photo, but just to the right of the subwoofer, is the entrance to the room. The subwoofer was recently moved there, greatly improving the sound from the previous corner placement behind the "corner" of the sectional. This "very visible" sub location was what caused me to give the nod to an Axiom sub with it's "matched" finish. I'm hoping the Beech system I ordered would be fairly close to matching the floors. My wife is not crazy about these wide "panel" DCM Timeframes, and for me, they take up too much wall space that could later be used for a Samsung 46" DLP... or whatever's looking good in six months. At that point, I might move the Bell'O rack to the right corner and flank the monitor with the M60s. The M60s won't be spread as far as I'd like, but it will get the right one away from the corner and would mean I don't have to keep dragging the left one over, since I intend to do more of that critical listening and general HT enjoyment!

Any thoughts regarding the M60 positioning from anyone? I can experiment, but Bell'O doesn't recommend moving the rack with equipment on it, so it could be very involved just to try switching the rack and right M60 for that right-side corner position!

The cabin my friends and family rent each year in Tahoe has those same Optimus speakers in the corners of the main room. Your QS8s will blow them away!

OT: That tahoe cabin reminds of all my friends' cabins I use. Seems like all of them are furnished w/ the 70's castoffs from the main house. How many have you gone to that had 8 tracks and those turntables that could hold multiple records on the spindle?

This can be an option too:

B Tech

I was going to use it for my VP150 or QS8s but changed my mind. If you're interested, PM me. I still have them and they've never been mounted.

OT: No 8-tracks. I may have seen a record player in one cabin, but we only stay at one place, now. It has a CD-changer.

Mark, I live in an 1870s townhouse, with plaster walls. Using a masonry drill bit and correspondingly sized plastic anchors, I attached by QS8s to the walls using the t-anchors. I also mounted my center speaker VP100 over the plasma using the FMB in the same manner.

I don't play music at ear bleeding levels, but I've had no problems (fingers-crossed) with either surrounds or center speaker working loose.

This solution is not nearly so elegant as what you are describing for your place, but it does work for me. Just thought you might want to consider. Cheers!

Please excuse me for bumping this part of one of my posts, but now that the M60s are in, I'm hoping for some quick advice!

The photo above illustrates the problems I had written about regarding my limited positioning for the coming M60s. I have a closet (to the left as visible in the photo) that doesn't allow me to put the left speaker equidistant from the right one according to the monitor. For times when I'm actually sitting on the sectional and watching a DVD or critically listening, I drag the left speaker over to the left in front of the closet door. I just read something (from Alan maybe?) regarding M60s in corners as not ideal positioning.

I might move the Bell'O rack to the right corner and flank the monitor with the M60s. The M60s won't be spread as far as I'd like, but it will get the right one away from the corner and would mean I don't have to keep dragging the left one over, since I intend to do more of that critical listening and general HT enjoyment!

Any thoughts regarding the M60 positioning from anyone? I can experiment, but Bell'O doesn't recommend moving the rack with equipment on it, (meaning I have to take everything off the rack)...so it could be very involved just to try the experiment of switching the rack and right M60 for that right-side corner position!

Hiya Mark,

We need to rearrange your room. We're pretty good at it, ya know.

Only slightly kidding.

My opinion (free! Today only!) is that you'll have to fidget with various options and decide what YOU prefer in YOUR space. I also think that not having more than a few feet between the speakers is going to rob you of fabulously nuanced soundstage that might be obtained by separating them further.

Mark, just thinking out loud and using the premise that your HT is WAY more important than the closet.

If you have some room on the left side of the door or if you don't need to open the door all the way (and I'm guessing you'll spend more time listening to/watching your HT than you will opening the door), you might want to set one of the M60's on the left side of the room, (running the wire around the door frame to connect it).

Would you still be able to open the door enough to get in the closet? This would give you a wider sound stage. Then you can take the rest of your rig and shift it to the left, closer to the right side of the door. Also allows you to put the sub into the corner (possibly improving your LFE output and gets the M60s OUT of the corners.

If you end up with a visual/balance problem (work with me here), you might consider hanging a floor to ceiling curtain the length of the room behind your HT. Probably designed so you can still get at the door.

If that doesn't work, blow the back of the room out and put on a 20x30 addition.

If you replaced that closet door with a pocket door, it would be much easier to get in and out of with equipment in front of it.

Wish I had thought of that! More alternatives include those accordian/folding doors or even a couple of pantry type 1/2 doors that swing out from both sides.

I've been somewhat absentia lately as I have received all my speakers and have been busy building wall mounts for my QS8s, re-cabling, etc….

I plan on writing out a fairly comprehensive post of the whole experience, thinking it might be helpful to those who are considering the purchase or awaiting their shipment.

It's easy for me to include quite a few photos, and I know all of you like photos! But a quick question- I'll resize them all and compress them probably to 50k each, but is there a point where it's annoying to our hosts or those with dial-up service? I'm not looking to post 100 photos, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with 10 or 12. Maybe I'll do it within a "thread" as opposed to a single post…(?) Any thoughts?

OK- to respond to some of your very thoughtful answers….

Ray wrote:

In reply to:

---

If you have some room on the left side of the door….(snip)

---

Actually, there is NO room to the left of the closet door. It's almost flush to the left wall of the room and, besides, there's a big cast-iron radiator there!

Tom and Peter:
Actually, it's a 100 year-old house and though I've had to make some modifications for the sake of my business, I always resist doing anything too drastic. I think a pocket door with these old lathe and plaster walls would end up relatively messy. The folding door, full-wall curtain, etc.. are certainly possible ideas.

We really don't need to get into that closet too often, and I ran out of time for experimentation, with a client needing to come into my office across the hall from my living room/HT room. For the moment, my right M60 is kind of in the corner, and the left one is as far left as possible yet allowing the closet door to open. I want to do some more rewiring of the rack in the not too distant future, and I'll use that time to experiment a little more with the M60 positions. My biggest concern was reading several times that the M60s shouldn't be put in a corner..… why do I have images of Patrick Swayze in my head as I write that?

As I said, I'll write a (likely long-winded) account of everything up to this point… but let me say that for now I am not at all unhappy with the positions of the M60s.

Thank you all again for your help- and let me now if it's PC to post lotsa pics…!

In reply to:

---

full-wall curtain

---

There's your answer right there. Just take the closet door off its hinges, hang some nice floor to ceiling velvet curtains on that entire wall, and you're golden! You now have the entire wall to work with, and you can still access the storage space behind the curtain.

Here's a bit more of a drastic idea, but it may work for you.

Find a new place for whatever it is you have in the closet. Remove the door to the closet, and move the equipment INTO the closet. It would be a poor-mans "in-wall" equipment rack.

Then you'd have much more room for the TV and new M60's. In fact you'd have room for a bigger TV.

In reply to:

---

In fact you'd have room for a bigger TV.

---

Now, THIS I'm liking a whole lot!

What a GREAT idea Spiff!!!!!! Wish I'd thought of it.

Damn! And I thought I see a jump in the stock price in velvet curtains.

Craig! Genius!

Man, you guys keep producing like that, and I'm going to bring ALL my problems here.

I have my moments.

Yes, you do.

I'm seriously liking that idea, although on "first pass" my wife wasn't too crazy about it. She's not closed to the idea, though, so I'm optomistic!

The funny thing is, I've done this same sort of thing for equipment in another closet, and have been considering for years to take the "two-door" wide closet down in my reception room and put a big screen in there. ( I always thought it would be cool to just open the two doors to a nice 50" plasma, and it already has wall-mounted speakers flanking the doors and even directly faces the couch where clients sit)....

Anyway, for whatever reason, I hadn't thought about that for the living room. I'm loving the idea of all the cabling being hidden and nothin' but a big screen flanked by the M60s... and I could probably put the sub on that same wall as well.

Isn't it always the good ideas that has everyone thinking "Of course! Why didn't I think of that!"?

Push the hidden wires...that'll help the SAF.

In reply to:

---

I'm going to bring ALL my problems here.

---

't'aint nothin' a bottle o' beer and a long set on the stoop cain't fix!