I am in the process of building a 20x26 room with 11'8" vaulted ceilings for my entertainment room. It will contain a wet bar, pool table and TV viewing area. If my math is correct it's 6000+ cubic feet of volume. It will also have a 15' opening into my kitchen dining area.

My questions are I have the VP150 currently and am looking to finish out the system. Would the QS8's be enough for my surrounds or do/should I upgrade them to ?. I am running a 5.1 system right now with a Yamaha HTR-5280 A/V receiver.

My initial thoughts were to get
2X M80
2X QS8
1 EP500

At this point I'm thinking separates and use the 5280 as my pre/pro (for now). I've been looking at Rotel and Halo 2 channel amps to run the M80's up front and the 5280 to run the rest. I would like to stay around that price point if possible or under. Given that I live in MN and neither of those manufacturers have dealerships in MN it makes it pretty tough to get a listen or to even see one in person. The system will be 90% movies and I like to feel my movies!

Any of you in MN (Twin Cities) that has this type of setup and would be willing to give a guy a listen?

Thanks for your help!
-Matt

Hello Matt,

Try going to the Hearing Things (Auditioning Axioms in your area) forum on these boards. If you check there, there's an Axiom owner with M22s and a VP150 in the Twin Cities area. Keep in mind that the M22's tonal balance with a subwoofer is very, very close to that of the M80s--the M22s just won't play as loud. The M80s have a slight bit more clarity than the M22s in the midrange, but it's very subtle.

One other Axiom owner (Tharkun) has used Parasound Halo amps and is happy with them. Your plan to use those for the M80s and the Yamaha for the other channels should be fine.

Regards,

Hi again,

I meant to say that given the room size, you'd get better coverage by eventually going to 7.1 with two extra QS8s at the rear.

Also, with the Halo or Rotel, you're simply getting high-power amplification that will drive the 4-ohm M80s without trouble. There wouldn't be much point in "auditioning" solid-state amplifiers, as all of my tests and those of many of my colleagues indicate that as long as solid state amplifiers are not driven into clipping and have flat frequency response and low distortion, there are no audible differences between them.

Regards,

Actually two of us are now using the Halo series, newkid2005 (Sunil) just added the C1 and A51 to his Axiom system and seems happy with them as well.

I like your speakers selections.

The extra QS8s will make listening in 7 channel stereo real nice if you have a party in the room.

I drive my 80's with Outlaw Monoblocks with great success.

Outlaw, like Axiom, lets you try them out at home.

Thanks for the input thus far... Wish I could upload a picture/drawing of my room so I could further input on placement.... I will try to explain, if I go with 4 QS8 for coverage they would be freestanding behind and along side my couch. The 26' length will have 14' of windows so no place to mount them. Also if they are freestanding how far away would they need to be from the listening area? I don't want to have my couch sitting there and the speakers sitting out in no mans land 5 feet away. Anyone know where/how I could get a picture uploaded?

photobucket seems to be a popular place to upload and then give us the link.

Post deleted by RexFlex23

LINK

Thanks for posting the link! However I'm having problems getting it sized so you can actually see what the hell it is. Looks fine when I create it, etc, but once it hits PhotoBucket it get's really tiny....

It looks fine to me. It's probably just your browser resizing the picture to fit in the window.

The nice thing about QS8s is that they are very forgiving.

You could put the backs all the way across the room behind the pool table or on the walls at the ends of the pool table. You make the adjustment for distance and loudness with the receiver set-up. You will still get great surround sound.

By putting them at the end of the room, you'll get great stereo in 7 channel.

yes tharkun is right....i am pretty happy with the halos...the M80s sound real clear and loud and their is no stress of any kind....i use my setup for mostly movies....the only sore point has been their weight (just ask my back)..eventually i do plan to add two more channels so that i have 7.1 setup......debating whether i should go with two M80s for back and use the Q8s for the side speakers....i also waiting to see if axiom comes up with M100s or M120s which i will use as main fronts...the subwoofer as i am learning is a totally different animal....good luck with you setup....guys here are very helpful and friendly

Thanks for the info! I was going to ask if I could mount them on the opposite side of the room and if it would still work given the QS8's are not the biggest speaker (I mean given they would have to fill a bit of room(volume) before it hit me at my listening position).

So now you have me very curious, I did some searching to try and find additional information, about the M100 or M120, not much luck as it's all rumor's still. That would be awesome if they are produced!