I'm in the beginning phase of piecing together a little home theater system. I've been looking at the QS8's with the idea of possibly using as both MAIN and rear surrounds in a 5.1 system.

Obviously this would be in conjuction with a subwoofer (say an EP500).

I'm drawn to the idea of having an wide soundstage radiating from the front as well as the rear. (I was also considering Magnepan's previously for their sound radiating properties as well.)

Has anyone tried using QS8's as main speakers? Is this do-able, or will they sound wonky in my proposed configuration?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Welcome to the forum!

This idea has creeped in my head before. I am sure it is not recommended but it would be a cool experiment to try. I have been always curious as to how that type of setup would sound. Axiom frequently does listening tests with their speakers, maybe they have tried something like this with the QS8 ?

Cheers!

Oscar, welcome. This question has been raised here a couple times in the past and Axiom audio expert Alan Lofft has stated that the requirements for surround speakers and front speakers differ. The diffuse sound field that's appropriate for surrounds isn't considered to be the best solution for the front speakers which benefit from a more precise imaging.

Note that the QSs have no rearward firing drivers and don't attempt to duplicate what Bose and a few others have attempted to achieve with multiple drivers configured so as to direct their sound to the rear.

not a good idea Oscar, the point of the design of the quadpolar Qs8's diffuse or envelope(wrap) you in the sound, not something you want for the front soundstage.

Agreed, I'm no expert but some of the common sense I have picked up in this and other audio sites is that the imaging and soundstage presentation would suffer to some degree by using quadpolar or dipolar speakers designed specifically for rear or surround purposes.

A couple years ago I got curious to just how the Q’s would sound as stereo speakers (in a R/L configuration). I reconfigured my receiver so that the surround back channels would be a second zone and played some music through that zone. They sounded pretty good, much better than I thought they would, but it just didn’t sound right. As others have mentioned, the sound coming from them was omni-directional, sorta.

If you wanted to use the Q’s as area speakers, like for instance a really big room where you might want speakers off the floor and on the wall instead, and were just looking for general background music, I think the Q’s would do very well. But I don’t think they would do very well in a surround set up as the mains or the center. You want precise imaging for these channels so sound follows the image in front of you, and the Q’s don’t do that.