Just for fun, another one of those "What speaker should I get threads?"

My goal is to have a uniform sound field. I don't want to have a different timber/sound when the effects pan. My use is overwhelmingly for home theater and video games (mostly first person shooters and action games). I listen to maybe 5% music. I figure with my high consumption of action media, localization would be a good thing?

I am hoping to wall mounting my plasma with enough space underneath that I can place a M22 all but flush with the bottom of the TV set while ensuring that the tweeter is about ear level. If this cannot be accomplished, I will probably go for a VP100. I have an adequate sub that takes care of all of my LFE needs.

My question is about rears. My couch is about 10" from the back wall and maybe 2.5' from each of the side walls. To the direct sides of the couch (90 degrees) are windows/sliding glass doors. I have a strip of about 8" between the edge of the window and the back wall.

My original thought was to use the full metal bracket and put an M22 on each side of the couch in that narrow strip, as close to the window as possible. This would put the speakers at ~95-100 degrees to the sides of the listening position.

Because the strip is so narrow, It would be impossible for me to mount a QS8 on the side wall. My only choice would be to place them on the rear wall which is 10" from the couch. From all I read you should place QS8's on the side for 5.1 configuration. Mounting them on the back wall would effectively put the downward firing woofer directly over the arms over the couch assuming I keep the QS8's a bit away from the side walls.

With my preference for action movies, tv shows, and video games, would I be better served by a QS8 or an M22? What about when my mounting limitations are factored in? Is there any tone difference between the M22 and QS8?

Thanks guys!

Serp, welcome. Apparently you haven't read the right stuff. In a 5.1 setup the side(not rear)surrounds are best placed a little farther back than directly to the side, to lend a little "phantom" back effect, in the absence of actual rear surrounds.

In your situation the QS8s should be mounted on the back wall about 6' up facing forward and separated as widely as possible, maybe just a few inches from the side walls.

Qs8's for "side" surrounds, especially for HT, you will be blown away.

The QS8's can still work well just a few inches from a side wall?? Geez, I've been killing myself trying to find a decent place for them...

Nut, when mounted on the back wall, all that's necessary for QS side surrounds is at least a few inches of room for the outside tweeters to bounce off the side walls.

Thanks JohnK, you're right. My issue is actually trying to use them for SR and SL speakers. I'm getting pretty frustrated, may have to make a new thread with a diagram and ask for help...

One question, how far is your seating going to be from your mains? As long as it’s not to far the I would use QS8s placed on the back wall as John suggested. Early Dolby placement diagrams and even my Denon 2807 suggest placing the surrounds as far back as 135 degrees to help create the “phantom” back effect John mentioned. I did this in my apartment and got the best most seamless surround field of any room I’ve been in.

OTOH if this will put a long distance between your mains and your surrounds the front to back panning might not work well. Really the best way to get your speakers set right is to experiment. Set them approximately where you want them and then play a 5 channel sweep with a demo disk or most computers with 5.1 also have the capability. Then move them around until you get the most seamless panning you can. If you can get a test tone to pan pretty well (doesn’t need to sound seamless test tones never will) then any program material will sound great. The most important thing I’ve found to creating a seamless 360 degree sound field is symmetry. The more symmetrical you can get things both in relation to your seating and to walls the better it gets.

With your seating so close to the back wall you might try something that worked well for me in a small room. I put furniture sliders under my futon so when I wasn’t watching or playing anything it was up against the back wall but I could easily slide it out to get about 3’ behind my seat to give more room for the back sound field to develop. It worked great.

As for timber in the panning I am very sensitive to it and have never noticed a problem with the QS8s matching my M22s or my M80s. The farther apart two speakers are the less noticeable timber differences become which is one reason many people are happy to use QS8s with other speaker brands.

Also, I’ve tired both QS8s and M22s as surrounds and the QS8s win, no contest.

Cheers,
Dean

Nut, I was talking about using them for SL and SR(in a 5.1 setup), but mounted on the back wall.

The best rear surround field I’ve ever had was with my QS8s in the back corners with the tweeters pointing parallel to the side and back walls. This placed them exactly 135 degrees back. I know it violates the “don’t corner load speakers” rule but I worked. In test tones it did cause a slight upper bass hump but it was inaudible with program material. When I played “Elder Scrolls Oblivion” I would test it buy standing near NPCs talking and spin around in a circle and hear their voices pan seamlessly around me w/o any timber or volume changes. Also, this actually worked better than when I “upgraded” to 7.1 which caused the sound field to drop out as it panned across the rear. So I switched back to 5.1 and my 2 extra QS8s sat idle until I moved.

I put my QS8's on my back wall in the position a normal sbl & sbr would sit because I had intentions of moving to 7.1 fairly soon, & I didn't want to have to move the side surrounds (in 5.1 they are better off behind the seating area, while in 7.1 they recommend them to be directly on either side) once I bought the other two QS8's. But it has sounded so incredible I've yet to even upgrade to 7.1, so don't worry about putting them on the rear wall. Even though that might not be their ideal position, they still sound remarkable back there!

I am about 12-14' from the mains.

I wonder if a couple M3's would have solved your rear sound field dropout problem in your old 7.1 setup. Do you not have that issue now?

Sorry, should've mentioned that I'm trying to setup 7.1 with them on the sides.

There was no problem, 5.1 worked just as advertised. I tried both M22s and QS8s as back speakers for 7.1 but the PLIIx algorithms just aren’t that good at handling hard pans in video games, plus the QS8s as surrounds are just so good that my experience is with proper placement they negate the need/benefits of rear speakers in many situations for discrete 5.1 material.

With that much separation between your mains and surrounds and your surrounds being so close behind you it might be hard for any speaker to created a really smooth transition from front to back. I think you would benefit a lot from experimenting with placement and if possible moving your seating out off the back wall a little. Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to sound great but with tweaking a bit you might be surprised how much better you can get to sound.

Do you ever wear headphones while playing first person shooters Serpentera?

No, not since my college days in the dorms. Now that my wife and I have our own home, half the fun is feeling the slam of the bass in your chest.

The good ol' days of playing Counter-Strike in dorms...

Young 'un. Back in my day, we played Warcraft in dorms. Warcraft 1. And Marathon.

Counter-Strike it was! I used to hate those idiots who would play at 3AM with their subs cranked. There are only so many repetitions of "go go go" one can take while trying to get some sleep before an 8am physics class.

We played Warcraft 1 during LAN parties in High-school...

With Counter-Strike you do have an advantage wearing headphones over those cheap ass 1 note subwoofers and computer speakers college students pass off as music systems in their dorms.

I ended up buying a pair of Sony floor-standing speakers with dual 6.5" woofers while in the dorms. If my neighbors didn't turn down the subs or use headphones at a reasonable time (after I made a request of course), I would crank up the Metallica as soon as I would wake up, and leave it playing while I went to class.

Memories.

Oh the dread of the 8:00 class and 3 hour lab. Even worse is multiple 3 hour labs in a day.

Wow you guys are young, we played Asteroids in our dorm, mixed in with a little Moon Patrol!!!







Okay that was a joke, I'm not THAT old!

Thanks for making me feel old now.

My couch is against the back wall and I can't really mount the QS8's on the side wall because on the left side there is an opening into the kitchen and on the right side there is a brick fireplace.

I also play a lot of first person shooter games and let me tell you the QS8's are nothing short of amazing. Even with my couch against the back wall I can tell if someone is walking up directly behind me, behind me to the left, behind me to the right, ect.


see the image below for my surround placement:

Oooops

Nice! Thanks!