Right now my HT setup is far from ideal. My room is a dual purpose livingroom/dining room with open spaces leading to the kitchen and stairway upstairs. But that doesn't concern me too much, as I indend in the future to have a dedicated room for my HT. When this day comes, it'll be a pretty small room. Most likely an extra bedroom that will be converted into my own little HT.

For a small room like that, I'm guessing that my M22ti's will be plenty of speaker to use as mains, no? I don't think I'd be able to put enough distance between my seating area and M60's for optimal sound staging in a small room like this either. I already have a Hsu VTF-2 sub, and the VP150 center. So unless I'm wrong about the M22/M60's quandary, my real question is regarding the QS series surrounds. In a small room like this, is there any benefit to having the QS8's over the QS4's? Needless to say there's a substantial price difference between the two.

Thanks guys!

-Craig

spiffnme,
I went through the same decision and even in my fairly larger room, the QS4s are great. I'd say if you have the money, go QS8, but I didn't have the money, so I went with the QS4s and I can't complain at all.

Frank

Room size shouldn't dictate your choices between those speakers.

Buy the best ones your wallet will let you. Better speakers will sound better, even at lower volumes.

And what happens if you move and you get a bigger room? You don't want speakers that are too small!

Are the QS8's that much better than the QS4's?

spiffnme,
Since surround speakers are meant for 'background' noises, reverberations or subtle effects, i have never personally considered them to need the requirements of main speakers (i.e. bigger does not = better).

Hence, for me, having to select between your options for a smaller room, the QS4s should be perfectly fine. The QS8s were designed for a larger space, to produce more volume of sound. If you do not have a large room the extra cost benefit here is lost. I've personally found large speakers in a small room to be overkill and difficult to setup.
As it is, the M60s i own are placed about 8 feet in front of my couch and i have NO extra space to move backwards or forwards. At this distance i have found it quite difficult to setup a proper sound field and have noted for future reference, that our listening position should at least be about 10-12 feet from the M60s to give them enough room for adjustments.
If i were going to keep the relatively small room we have right now (approx. 15x16) for HT only (not music), i would have opted for the M22s and a sub combo instead of the M60s. The QS4s would have also been higher on my list than the QS8s.

I would agree with Chess 100000000000000%. I had floorstanders in my 16x12 room. I found it too forward and had issues to get a good soundstage. I traded them back in and got a little mini monitor. Now the music is beatiful and the speakers just dissappear. I stop moving my speakers and now I just enjoy the sights and sound.

Saturn

What do you guys think about in-walls? With the seating area flush against the back wall (or very close to it), putting an in-wall in the rear could be nice.

What do ya think?

M22ti mains
VP150 center
QS4 surrounds (right and left sides)
??? in-wall rear(s)
Hsu subwoofer

spiffnme


in walls are usually not as good as regular speakers.

what size is your room? if it really is THAT small, then yes, get small speakers.

there's no hard set facts, unfortunately, in relation to speaker size against room size.

My couch is flush against the wall too. I have a single QS8 on my back wall, mounted 4" down from the ceiling, and it's angled down.