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I've been using the Axiom QS8 speakers as side surrounds and M2i speakers as rear surrounds for a couple of years now. The QS8 speakers at the side are OUTSTANDING! But - I think the M2i speakers at the rear leave something to be desired. I was wondering if there would be a noticable improvement if I were to purchase another pair of QS8's to be used as my rear surrounds? Has anyone tried this? Or is there anyone who is using QS8's as rear surrounds who can comment?

Thanks, Bill

Ohhhhhh Nooooooo Mr. Billlllll

Hey Bill,

A lot depends on your room situation. Can you provide the size of your room? If you have lots of room behind you, then Qs8's might be nice. I have 4 Qs8's and love them, for both music and movies.

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A lot depends on your room situation. Can you provide the size of your room?

The room is roughly 20' x 20' with the side surrounds about 1/2 way between the front speakers and the rear wall. Based on your post and how much room I have behind the side surrounds, it sounds like the QS8's would be a nice upgrade!

I have a single QS8 in the rear, 2 as side surrounds and they work great, no tonal differences when listening to music in 6 channel to match my M22's and VP 100. They all seem to play equally loud as well.

Just wondering why you say the M2's have something to be desired or is just upgradeitits? Remember in 7.1 the rear channels really don't receive much information to use during movies, at least not as much as the sides, so you may not notice the rears as much.

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Just wondering why you say the M2's have something to be desired or is just upgradeitits?

It might be upgradeitis, but actually I just think the M2's don't work well as rear surrounds. I've probably watched 1,000 movies with them since setting up the HT. At first I heard zip from the rear, so over the months I advanced the gain until the rear speakers were actually +3dB louder than the fronts with the audio meter at my listening position. Even with this extra gain, I seldom hear anything from the rear that adds to the overall surround effects of the movie. OHOH, the QS8's at the sides of the listening position and are adjusted to the same level as the fronts are continually squirting interesting sounds all over the HT. Obviously I'm not an expert in using the right terminology to describe HT sound, but then I know what I like!

Anyway, what little information I've found so far tells me that the QS8's might be just what the Dr. ordered.

Thanks, Bill

Well, as mentioned above, there are very few movies that make use of the rear channels, however, if you receiver has decoding like Dolby PLIIx, the rears will get much more attention. Also, I'm curious if you have the 22's angled towards you? Bookshelfs will not be as forgiving as Q's, but should still work well, especially in PLIIx mode.

You mentioned a meter, so I assume your talking about the Radio Shack SPL meter? Have you run the manual test tones from the receiver and calibrated all speakers to 75dB?

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Well, as mentioned above, there are very few movies that make use of the rear channels, however, if you receiver has decoding like Dolby PLIIx, the rears will get much more attention. Also, I'm curious if you have the 22's angled towards you? Bookshelfs will not be as forgiving as Q's, but should still work well, especially in PLIIx mode.

You mentioned a meter, so I assume your talking about the Radio Shack SPL meter? Have you run the manual test tones from the receiver and calibrated all speakers to 75dB?

I do use DPLIIx a LOT. They are M2's, not 22's, and they are angled towards the main listening position. I do use the B&K's test tones and a R.S. SPL meter, and the speakers are all calibrated to 75dB, with the exception of the rears that have been slowly increased to 78dB. The rears are wall mounted at approx. the same height as the side surrounds. Note also that I have 150W per channel and am using #12 stranded speaker to the rears, so there is no lack of amp power.

I have a few other things on my plate right now, but within the next week or 2 I think I might be upgrading my rears to the QS8's, that is unless someone gives me a good reason why this would not be too smart.

- MrBill

Have you listened to your qs8's as rear surrounds yet? I would try that first before ordering another pair.

Swap the m2's(use them as side surrounds) and qs8's then calibrate, and listen to a few movies with Pro Logic IIx. Do the qs8's(as rear surrounds) sound anemic? Are they fuller sounding?

Nice idea, I can't believe I didn't think of that.

One thing I noticed looking at your HT room Mr. Bill is that you have very bare walls/floors. The sound would be dramatically improved if you had some room treatments. Heck, some nice throw rugs on the floor would help with reflections, or even some wall diffusion or absorption items would help.

I'm a big fan of the QS series as rears.

Tried an M22 back there, and a 360 audio pan just didn't sound right transisitioning into and out of the rear centre.

Bren R.

I’m running M3’s as rear surrounds. I don’t find them lacking at all. For 7 channel music they sound great, better than the QS8’s. My only bitch is that they are simply too big for the space they occupy and I’ll be swapping them out with another set of QS 8’s. You might want to try a set of M3’s. In either case, if you swap out those M2’s, you ought to try running them in parallel as your center. I think you will like them more than your VP100.

Personally, I think my Qs8's do an awesome job in the music category...

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Have you listened to your qs8's as rear surrounds yet?

That's a good idea, but I'll take it a step further. I've ordered the QS8's to replace the M2i's in the rear. I'll give them a good workout during the "no questions asked" 30-day trial, then return them if I'm not happy.

BTW - I originally had M22's in the rear. These sounded GOOD, but they were so heavy that the FMB's were slowly working their way out of the rear of the speakers. Since I had no alternative to wall mounting the rear speakers, I had to return them. Hopefully Axiom has corrected this problem by now, but I'm going with the QS8's just in case the problem hasn't gone away.

- MrBill

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I've been using the Axiom QS8 speakers as side surrounds and M2i speakers as rear surrounds for a couple of years now. The QS8 speakers at the side are OUTSTANDING! But - I think the M2i speakers at the rear leave something to be desired. I was wondering if there would be a noticable improvement if I were to purchase another pair of QS8's to be used as my rear surrounds? Has anyone tried this? Or is there anyone who is using QS8's as rear surrounds who can comment?

Thanks, Bill

Just my opinion, but I think 7.1 is very overrated (especially with surrounds as good as the QS8's). I would suggest moving your M2i's into another job and enjoy your 5.1 system. That's what I did. I'm much happier with my M2i's in the game room.

BTW - The QS8's I ordered are "V2". How do these differ from the QS8's of a couple of years ago?

They are essentially the same, Axiom just decided to go with V2 on all of the speakers as the line is getting dated, but has under gone mild changes here and there, ie. QS4's now have same tweeter as the rest of the line, and I believe a few components on the crossovers have been changed, just very mild adjustments, I would guess to still hit a price point, but enough changes that they added the V2 designation. I know there was a thread earlier about this but it has eluded me.