Hello everyone:

Well, I've had my M80v2's now for over a month and although I had a few misgivings when they first arrived I'm now enjoying them and I'm glad to say they've found a home as the centerpiece for my HT. One of the things that made a big difference in their performance (at least IMHO) was upgrading my amp from 125 WPC (8 ohms, I can't remember what the 4 ohm rating was) to 200 WPC into 8 ohms / 300 WPC into 4 ohms. To my ears, it really brought out the midrange and clarified the vocals.

Anyway, back to my topic. As a result of commiting to the the M80v2's I have now brought the rest of the system together with a VP 150 and a pair of QS8's for the surrounds. My exisiting Def Tech sub is going to have to wait to be upgraded and I'm using my NHT Super One's (a very nice little speaker in it's day) as the rear surrounds to complete the 7.1 configuration.

My question has to do with those of you (or anyone else who wants to join in) who are using stands (FMS's) for your QS8's. What have you found to be the best location(s) for your side surrounds (distance from seating, etc.)? Does anyone place them on pedestals of some sort to get them a little higher?

My room situation is such that I have a large window area to the left of my seating area and the room is open to the right side of my seating area. Thus it is pretty much impossible to mount the QS8's on the wall unless they're 9 feet up. In my discussions with Brent at Axiom we agreed that 9 feet was probably too high for optimum performance so I ordered the stands. By the way, the room is 16' x 25' with a 14' vaulted ceiling. In experimenting with them over the last few days I first placed them directly alongside the seating area as is recommended with a 7.1 system, but they seemed too "directional," even when I adjusted they're volume through my pre/pro. They seemed a little better being placed slightly behind, but I've got a lot of experimenting to do so I was hoping to "pick" everyone's brain and see what your thoughts might be. My situation will be such that I will literally be moving them out into the room during listening and movie watching from stationary positions along the walls when they are not being used. It's a bit of a pain but on the other hand it gives me an opportunity to place them in more of an ideal configuration for DVD-Audio vs. DD and DTS for movies as the two formats are engineered differently in the studio.

Anyway, your thoughts and suggestions are most welcome and would be appreciated. Thanks.

Oh, by the way, how important does everyone feel the spikes on the bottom of the speakers and/or stands are? Do they make much of a difference in sound or is it more to keep the speakers more stable? I was just wondering. Thanks.

Regards.

Korky, it's a bit unusual that speakers with as good dispersion as the QSs would be too directional in your use. You mention that you move them in from the wall when listening, but don't say how much. Even with the QSs, at least 4-5' distance should be kept, and positioning directly to the side should be okay.

Thanks John K.

You're right about the QS8's, at least according to everything that I have read they should be very non-directional. I did have them about where you suggest, about 5' to 6' away from my listening position. I was thinking that the fact they were right at ear level based on the height of the stands was making them stand out more than they should. I also need to try the automatic set up with the microphone and my pre/pro and see what that result is. There was too much extraneous noise in the house the other day to do that properly.

I'll keep experimenting to find the best location. I guess that's the one good thing about using stands instead of mounting them onto the wall; you have greater flexibility in finding the "sweet" spot.

Regards