Hey all, just took some final pics tonite, thought I would share them with you all. The basement is finally done and I must say it feels good when you build something yourself to see it come to completion...except for the doors tho










(Futon is SUPER comfy, looks the opposite, but man...very comfy!)



























Thanks for all the advise everyone has given me, I love my Axioms and suspect that I will come under upgraditus in the future for sure...

Awesome, Robb! I'm very envious. I'll bet that room sounds a lot different than where you had the system initially.

Nicely done! Love the rack, a little high gloss paint and no one would be the wiser. So where is the review of the new system in its final home? I am sure it sounds even better. Still looks wierd to see vertical centers, especially above, below AND wall mounted.

Nice room! This futon looks a lot like mine and I agree, it's a lot more comfortable than it looks.

Nice looking room indeed. The futon must be a popular one, we have the same one too.

Great room Robb. You must be so pleased with it! Very clever rack - is that threaded rod and bolts? That would make it completely adjustable!!!

Thanks for the replies all. I have yet to sit down and do an official review on the speakers. Especially because I have nothing really to compare them to since they are my first set.

I guess I could hook up my old mini-stereo JVC speakers (6ohm speakers!) and compare the two. THen I would have something to write about.

Andrea,

Yes, the rack is made up of 4 All Threaded Rods. A good project for the wife and I (highly recommended for "AV Time with the wife" points). Quite simple to make, I got the idea off of TNT Audio website. Like you said, it is nice because you can adjust the shelf clearance, so if in the future I get a separate, I left myself alot of room to put a separate amp above the receiver shelf. Same with the stands for the M22s, just some PVC pipe, with some All Threaded rod in the middle, and a top and bottom, boom, you got a good lookin' stand!

Ya, the 2 M3s vertically look a little wierd I guess eh? Oh well, what can ya do

>>Awesome, Robb! I'm very envious. I'll bet that room sounds a lot different than where you had the system initially. >>

It sounds ALOT different, especially the surrounds. Before, the surrounds were only 3 or 4 feet away from me, pretty much at a 90 degree angle (and level with my ears). Now they are 2-3ft higher than ear level and probably 2 feet back, and I think 7 feet away. I like the sound alot, but it def. is different, I think I prefered the ear level. but that is impractical for hosting movies. I'll get used to it, the opening battle scene on master and commander leaves no desire for anything else but the QS8s. So it must be the source material on some movies that are disapointing.

Hi,

excellent job - i really like the color selection.

not to be overlooked are the stands, only YOU will have the satisfaction of remembering every step of the work that you did.

the projector looks like a Benq. i have one of those in the "simulator" in the basement. it's really good on computer-generated imagery (read: games).

sit back, kick the shoes off, enjoy!

Elden

Very creative use of resources (and $$$). I like that, want a job?

Well done. What’s next?

Awesome dude.

Looks great!

You mean, no more soup cans???

Otherwise - it looks great!

Excellent job on everything! It's hard to believe it's the same bare room that you showed us before. I imigine you'll be doing a LOT of movie watching now.

You've got me curious about the surround placement. Mine are positioned almost exactly like yours since it's always been recommended that they should be 3 or 4 ft. about ear level. However, whenever I listen to 5.1 music, it sounds very unnatural. Of course, it's great with certain movies, but I imagine that ear level would sound just as good.

From having the QS8s at ear level (on the Bridgman pattented soup can design), to having them 3 feet above ear level I can say without a doubt that they sound better at ear level.

The problem with that is if you have a setup with lots of couches etc, really only the sweet spot will have a good surround experience...for example, those sitting in the lazy boys wouldn't even hear the surround content in my room, it would be too low...

I understand the 3 ft above ear level thing, but I did like the ear level much better. I'll have to do some more listening on my own to judge for sure. All I have really done is played movies, and some music, but not really listening intently to the music (using Neo6).

I don't plan on changing the position of the QS8s at all. I know that they perform extreamly well where they are simply because on Master and Commander, you actually feel like you're in the ship, with all the footsteps around you, the wood splinters, extreamly detailed surround effects. Which is why I am thinking the source is more important than anything.

As well, I watched Kingdom of Heaven last week, the siege on Jerusalem was freakin' awsome, lots of surround content, so I think it depends more on the source than the placement. For music thats a different story.

Sitting up on the couch is my favorite spot, right inbetween the QS4's. Perfectly ear level.

The wall pretty reflective, so if I sit a little forward in my seat, the side-firing tweeters of the QS4's bounce off the wall and create a sonic image directly behind me, it's wild.

I'm a huge surround guy. I turn the surrounds up and listen for those surround effects. I just love it.

Haven't thought twice about upgrading to QS8's. My ears are happy.

Hutzal - great looking romm!

It looks great!

I saw some comments about the over under twin center speakers but actually I think this should work really well to steer the image to the center of the screen. I don’t want to use a perforated screen with the center behind it so I’m also considering this approach. I think in theory it should work great but I was wondering what your thoughts were since you have this setup.

Also, have you experimented with using only one or the other? You should increase the center volume by +6dB when using only one or the other to get a fair test. In particular I think you should observe a much better impression that the dialog is coming from the actors mouths instead of some place above or below as I suspect it will be with just one.

So, while some have commented that it looks, “strange” or what ever, I say it looks functional or better yet, it looks, “correct”! That’s just my opinion for now but within two or three weeks the slab will finally be poured for my new house in which I’m planning a dedicated HT. So, some six or seven months later I’ll know for sure since I’m also planning twin centers over and under the screen.

Oh, one thing though, you might consider inverting the top one. Put the tweeters both toward the center.

Nice job!!!

Monte

Ya, the dual centre channel is awesome. I love how the dialog is fixed at the centre of the screen.

I never thought I would say this, but after listening to some Neo 6 Music, messing with the centre channel width, I am beginning to want M2s instead of M3s. When switching from the M3s to the M22s (centre channel width from 1.0 to 0.0) the vocals are just so much more crisp and clear and clean.

Don't get me wrong, the M3s are an awesome speaker, but I like the crispness of the 5.25" woofers on the M22s. I really honestly can't believe I am contemplating switching up the M3s for M2s.

I am going to do an A/B test with the mains and the M3s prior to me doing this to make sure that this is what I want. But I am pretty sure that this IS what I want. I think the M2s would sound better than the M3s when paired with M22s. (you all can hold the "I told you so's...JohnK!)

-Hutz

Well that should make sense, since then your left, center and right channels would all be using the same drivers. Should make for a more seamless soundstage.

I have decided that after I get some spare cash (hopefully this month) I will order a pair of M2s, and move the M3s into my home studio. I wanted to use the M22s for the studio (and later order M60 towers for the theatre instead) but this is a much cheaper alternative, and the wife likes less money spent .

I have also read a great review on the M3s as a studio monitor on this board, so I know that they will do just fine.

Anyone in canada know of a REALLY cheap 2 channel amp? I may go for the emotiva BPA-1, which will end up being around $300CAD which kind of sucks! There must be a better alternative for driving M3s

I use one of the Sonic T-amps (the cheap one, not one of the newer "fancy" ones) in my wife's office with a pair of M3s and they sound great. I bought an external power supply for it, and the clips are a little cheesey (& difficult to get decent speaker wire into). So it might be worth spending a little extra to get the full fledged "audiophile" version.

I'm not going to say this amp is the finest product in audiophiledom, etc. but it is a fine value and does the job effectively. And you can certainly find it for less than the link to Sonic Impact that I included above. There are prior threads about the cheap version in the archives.

Good luck!

Regards,
Rich

I agree. When I heard the T-amp a couple years ago I thought is was an excellent value.