I'm looking to set up a 5.1 environment...however, I live in an apartment, and my sofa is against the rear wall. Whats the best way to mount a pair of QS4's in this scenario, without having to move the sofa off the wall?

There's about 1.5 feet of space on the sides of each end of the sofa before a side wall...I was curious as to whether I should get the Axiom mounts and put them in the corners, on the side wall, or on the rear wall.

I believe that the general consession is on the side wall about a foot or two forward of the listening position and about 2 feet above the listening position. (But not too close to the ceiling either). The back wall is left for 7.1 setups.

More will certainly chime in

Good luck.

Dan, in a 5.1 setup the general idea is to have the side surrounds about 6' up on the side walls and slightly(maybe a couple feet)back of the seating position. When the seating is against the rear wall that can't be done and the best position would probably be on the back wall, separated as much as possible(say to about 6" from the side walls). That should give side surround with a bit of back effect.

Thanks, I will try that config...one more question though: If on the wall is the desired place, what is the purpose of the stand designated for these QS-series surrounds?

Not everyone has walls in the right place. A couple of people on the board were trying to lay out their rooms but had big plate glass windows covering the entire side wall where a surround would be mounted... and the back wall was too far away to be an option.

People like that use stands

I may end up with stands as well, since the side walls in my new place are 45 degree wall/ceiling (it's a loft). Either FMBs or stands, not sure.

I have a very wide area, but not much depth from my screen to my back wall, so my couch in on the back wall. Idealy, the theater area would be changed so that it was narrow from side to side and long from front to back, but there are other factors that prevented this for me.

I have my QS8 speakers on the back wall, above my head, and a little bit out to the sides. After playing around with placement for a while, I found that this did a pretty good job of giving me a sound field that was fairly enveloping under the room situation. I have them turned up a little more than the default settings on my receiver to compensate for the distance, but I am able to fit more seats in the area since the surround sound is wider.

I have plans to rip it all out in about 3 years when we do a home addition and I will then be able to place the speakers better. Actually, I will shoot for 7.1 in that situation since my gear supports it, even though 7.1 gets mixed results over 5.1 due to lacking audio source material.

Check out my cheesy web site link below and click on the "Construction" pictures to see where it is at today. The other parts of the basement get finished this winter, and carpet in spring, so it will start taking shape even more.

PS. The QS4 and QS8 are great speakers and are very 'forgiving" in where you place them. Other companies' speakers would not work so well in your situation.

I have a similar placement to Nickbuol's. The couch is backed against the wall, there IS one "surround-friendly" wall to the left, but not to the right (which is a traffic area to the laundry room)... adding to this, there's a shelf running around the room at the 5' level which precludes mounting the surrounds at the "normal" height.

So mine are mounted across the back wall just above the listening position.

The QS-series are very forgiving of placement.

Bren R.

Wow, thanks for all the input. One more question:

How would M2i's or M3ti's work out in this situation? If I were to mount them either on the back or side walls, and tilt/angle them accordingly. I've got studs in the right places, so mounting isn't a problem.

Heh, maybe I should just go with one option and if it doesnt work, try the other....but I'm trying to get the right choice the first time.

Thanks!

I ran M2i surrounds before getting QS8s. They work really nicely as surrounds but the QS8s somehow make the room seem a lot larger. If I had to choose I would stay with QS8s but I am going to try 7.1 with the M2is in the rear positions... where they will also be real good for SACD/DVD-A audio.