Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Can QS8's be mounted to a rear wall (not sides)?

In my theater layout (non-dedicated area), The seating will be against the back wall, the screen against the front wall, but there are no side walls near by. If I mount my QS8 speakers to the back wall, will they still sound good, or do I need to come up with some sort of bracket that holds the speaker like it was on a side wall? I really don't want to suspend them from the ceiling, but I guess that might be an option as well.

Ideas?

Oh, and no, I can't spin my theater 90 degrees to have the currently planned front and rear walls become side walls. It just doesn't work in this area (trust me)...

My QS4s ARE suspended from the ceiling, but they're at about a 45 degree angle (neither flush against the side walls nor flush against the back). They sound great. I wouldn't imagine that it would be a big deal to mount them against the back walls. The great thing about the Q series is that the dispersion characteristics are pretty forgiving.

From the Axiom FAQ:

"Where should I place my surround speakers?
Ideally, surround speakers should be either wall-mounted or stand-mounted to either side of the couch or primary listening area, from one to six feet higher than seated listeners' ears, and slightly forward or rearwards of the listening area if you wish. Axiom's Quadpolar surrounds are especially versatile and can yield excellent performance with stand or wall-mounting to the rear as well as at side locations. (see our dedicated stands for the QS Surround speakers in the Store). Rear center speakers for 6.1 and 7.1 installations are intended to go on the rear wall at about the same height as the surround speakers."

Makes me feel a little better. I know that Alan (Axiom Alan, so to speak) has his on the rear wall and not the sides and that he has his couch up against the rear wall too, just like my situation. I just want to maximize the sound quality for this set up. I guess that I could pick up some Full Metal Brackets and mount the spekers on the ceiling to have the "facing" the listening area, but right up against the rear wall, but I was not sure how the side firing sound coming from the QS8's would "react" so close to a wall...

Nick, I had my QS8's mounted on the rear wall (against which rested my listening couch) for a long while. It was fabulous. We subsequently reconfigured the whole house, moving the theatre to a different room. But I was quite satisfied with the surrounds positioned flush with the rear wall. I had them about 2-3 feet above and also about 3 feet to the sides of the couch. I think the flush-mount T-bracket supplied with the speakers makes for a clean and elegant install.

In your case, I would certainly not spend a lot of time or money on alternate mounting methods.

Just my $0.02.

Sounds good. I was hoping to get some confirmation from someone that these wonderful little speakers would work well in my install....

nickbuol,

Just a minor correction. Both my QS8s are to the sides, but the left one is quite close to the rear wall (about 1 foot from it), against which my couch resides. The right QS8 is actually slightly forward of a line parallel to the couch and about 3 feet higher up than the left surround. Despite the different placements, I've never found any objectionable discontinuity in the sense of ambience or surround envelopment. I did play around with placement while listening before I decided on those locations.

I have heard two different sets of QS8s set up at the rear, and I was amazed at how adaptable they are. In both cases they worked really well. I do think it is important to experiment somewhat with QS8 placement and do some listening before you drill holes, because every room is different and has its own unique set of acoustic properties.

Regards,

Thanks Alan for the correction. I am at the point where I need to run wires so that I can finish drywalling, so I will make my best educated guess for wire placement and just keep track of stud locations so I get good solid mountings no matter how I decide to put them up.