My HT room is 12' X 22' X 8' high. There is a large opening to another room about the same size and an open stairway leading down to an entryway and the downstairs. I am unable to close off the openings at all. A large window and a stairway prevent me from setting the HT up the long way, so I have the TV on one side of the 12' and the couch on the other. The couch is about 2' from the wall so my eyes are about 8' from the screen. My M22's are currently 11 ft apart and toed in pretty well with the tweeters at ear level. My VP150 is sitting directly on top (angled down to my ears) of my 38" widescreen direct view tv. I am finishing up 2 large SVS type DIY subs that will lay behind my couch.

My problem is that I just pre-ordered a Pioneer 53TX and I want to use all 7 channels. My side surrounds look like they would go best about 3 feet in front of my head and up over the window 6" from the ceiling to the top of the speaker (QS8) and 22 ft wide. The rear surrounds look to fit nicely about 2 feet from the ceiling and about 6 feet wide behind the couch.

1. How does this setup sound? Am I missing anything?

2. QS4 or QS8?

3. Should I move my M22s in closer to the TV?

Thanks for all of your help getting me this far!

Frenchy, there's no problem with setting up on the long wall, as long as you can still sit far enough away. It looks like you barely made it. The M22 separation at that distance would be commonly suggested to be about 7-8', but if you get good imaging with the toe-in, a wider separation is fine. I wonder why the subs will be behind the couch, unless appearance demands it. Problems with localization of bass should be less and bass in general better if both were in the corner behind one M22.

Good choice on the 53TX, which is apparently like sushi's 45TX, but with 9 band rather than 5 band equalization. How much will you have to pay though, because the few 45TXs left which are being closed out are available(at least supposedly)for a bit over $700.

The side surround location looks allright since you'll be also be using rear surrounds. You don't have much room behind you for those, but that's probably as good as you can do. If you can afford them, go with the QS8s.

Frenchlop,

I would definitely start with a 5.1 setup in this case. You will have only ~4 feet of horizontal distance from the rear surrounds, and I doubt that you get a good 7.1 effect in that kind of geometry. If it were me, I would fundamentally rearrange the room before adding the rear channels.


John,

I understand that placing the sub(s) behind/besides the listening couch is what Dr. Hsu often recommends to his customers. He says he likes the "near-field" bass effect you get this way.

Yeah, I know, Masa, but that's one I've never been able to figure out.

John,

There are openings behind the M22s not corners and the WAF requires the behind the couch location. It is a possibility to move the subs to the rear left corner, however, that seems far away.

The 53TX I ordered for $769 shipped (authorized). I just need to wait for it to come out now.

The imaging is fine in my seat, but it quickly goes away if I move over a couple feet.

Sushi,

Since the rears are closer together than the fronts, I was actually more worried about the sides being too close to the M22s up front. It justs seems that having a 5.1 setup with the sides 22 feet wide would have trouble imaging the rear and could use the support of the rear speakers.

I agree that I could use a better setup, however, I think I am stuck. I have a picture window and opening to the kitchen on one end and a stairway down and the opening to a hallway on the other.

Thanks,

Scott

Or possibly it would work well to use M22s as the side surround because of the long, narrow distance.

I could move my M22s to the side and replace them with M60s and send even more money to Axiom. I would still go with the QS4 or 8s in the back.

Now I am more confused than when I started.

in response to
"The imaging is fine in my seat, but it quickly goes away if I move over a couple feet" .......sitting 8 feet away from the screen,your speakers 11 feet apart and toed in sounds like you will have a very narrow sweet spot ,i would suggest getting the front mains as close to the tv as possible ,and take off some of the toe in as needed,then slowly work them further apart until you found a happy medium for the seating area....ron

How would it work to have a set of M22s at 5ft wide and another at 11ft wide? What would that do to the soundstage and imaging?

im not sure,i was wondering that myself about the m80s,sometimes its nice to just let it rip,if you try it,let us know how it is,owning a pair of axioms is nice,owning two pairs would probably be nicer...good luck...ron