I’ve emailed Axiom about this, but I haven’t gotten a response yet, so I thought I take it to the people.

I just got 3 QS8s and I set them up for 6.1. I’m running a Pioneer Elite THX receiver capable of 7.1. I have the VP150 as well. I had Sony rears before and I was expecting the QS8s would blow me away. After setting them up and doing some tweaking, I watched a few choice scenes and my conclusion was that they were leaps and bounds better than my old rears, but not as amazing as I hoped. I thought the quadpolar design would completely envelopment me in sound. They seem to do the job when called upon(cars, explosions, hard rain), but are not near as active as I thought. Am I asking too much from a $250 speaker?

I may still have some tweaking to do, but there’s only so much difference that’ll make. I’ve read a few places that say the only way to get “true to theatre” sound is with “full range” rear speakers. I thought the QS8s were full range but Axiom tells me they’re not.

What am I missing?

Thanks
JL

There is just not that much info being sent to the rears in most movies. Mostly it is environmental effects (rain, cars, birds, etc) in most cases. Some movies offer more in terms of surround. It would be rather distracting if there was a noticeable amount of sound and info coming from behind or the side all the way through a movie.

As far as using full range rears, it really is unnecessary in movies. I can't think of too many instances when 30Hz or lower info is called for. Besides, anything really low is pretty omnidirectional and your sub should pick up the
slack. You may benefit from full range speakers in the rear if you like surround sound music and use 5+ channel stereo or such.

Hang in there, sometimes the hype and anticipation can make a great speaker sound average.

Here's an excellent article by Axiom's own Alan Lofft regarding the surround speakers and setup....

Surround Speakers

I agree that the surrounds should not be active at all time, I was just hoping that teh surrounds would be as active as they are in a theatre. This may just be the fault of the DVD format and it's compressed audio. Mabye HD-DVD will remedy this.

Also, are the QS8s as close as one can get to full range in terms of surround speakers?

-JL

Have you calibrated the speakers? I've used that Radio Shack SPL meter to set up my speakers, but on a personal level, I still felt that my QS8's were lacking a bit as well. So all I did was turn them both up one decibal and I'm a lot more satisfied. I'm not sure it will help your situation or not.

Can you expand on what you are talking about when you say you tweeked them? How are they positioned, wall, stands, ceiling? Where are they positioned from the listeners ears? How do you have the levels set on your receiver? Don't rely on the microphone setup, get and SPL meter. The Left/Right channels should get lots of information, however, the rear is not as common. My 4 Qs8's rock my world and totally envelope me in the action, better than any theater I've been to lately, even THX.

JL, as the previous replies have indicated, the "activity" in the surrounds depends on the program material, not the speakers being used. As Mary pointed out, you should also be sure that your surrounds have their level calibrated correctly and you can try setting them a dB or two higher to see if that's more to your taste. Again though, constant high level activity isn't to be expected.