Hello,

I recently upgraded my fronts and my side surrounds. I have the QS8's and they are fantastic. I have an older pair of monopole Infinity's and am always looking to make things better. Is a monopole speaker the best solution for the rears, or would I get better surround sound by going with another pair of QS8's or QS4's for the rears or just getting better monopoles like the M3? Thanks.

a monopole will work if you have enough distance behind you to allow the sound to diffuse, but a QS series speaker really is the best as they are much less sensitive to distance and position.

Blaster, as Fred pointed out, if you have considerable distance behind the listening position(say, 10')monopole speakers can work well. However, overall the QSs are advantageous.

i use to use QS8's for my surround rears but found that because the listening position was almost 15' away/behind that i had to change them out and go to M2v3 on-wall speakers in order to really make it work right.

that's not a knock at the QS8v3's either. it's an issue of how they work and the hugh distance from the listening position. for me, to get channels 6 & 7 to work like i feel they should, i went with the M2v3 on-wall speakers.

i went with the on-wall because we didn't want the speakers to stick out farther than the QS8's did so i decided to try the on-wall M2's and they worked out great.

they give me enough meaningful volume to work nicely into a 7 channel surround atmosphere that works and works well. i get all the nice highs and midrange from them. also i know that you don't get the LF out of the on-wall but that's what crossovers and subs are for! i had the QS8's for about 6 months before switching them out with the M2's. i've now had the M2's for about 3 months and this is what i needed. i'd say if i was inside the 10' mark say closer to 8', no question, the Q's would be there but, at 10' and > you need direct radiating speakers...at least to me.

good luck, keep us posted whatever you choose to do.

I'm not saying the extra rear surrounds are completely worthless but I wouldn't lose much sleep over them either. In my previous HT room I had some direct radiating speakers for the 6/7 channels and in my currently HT I have some old QS4's that I'm using.

The rooms are different and my situation was similar to solardadd's. I would give the same recommendation but I would also add that if you already have some speakers to use back there, use them and spend your money on other components. I have yet to find much content that makes those channels necessary and yes I always enable PLIIx/NEO:6 for 5.1 material.