Mark,
It might help you to look at how I laid out
my QS8s. They are about 12 feet away from my sweet spot at the couch. And I sit 8 feet away from my fronts and centre. For reference, my room is 4,000 cubic feet and has a 7 foot 2 inch ceiling.
The QS8s sound absolutely wonderful with DD or DTS compared to the direct radiating speakers I had before. The speakers really do disappear. Very often when we're watching a movie we'll get freaked out because we hear noises behind us that can't quite be pin-pointed (I distinctly remember the Blade trilogy having this effect)...very different from the direct radiating speakers. I can't comment about PLII and Neo because I haven't quite figured out how to tweak these modes yet. And I can't comment on how these modes sounded on my old speakers because I never used PLII and Neo until I got my Axiom system.
I would agree with others that the QS4s are too small for your room. But the biggest problem I see is the cross-over. The QS8s are optimally crossed over at about 85Hz so 80Hz is a very good setting (that's what I have mine set at).
BTW, my wife is very happy with the look of the Axiom speakers (even when they are naked) and she thinks the QS8s look great on the wall. Of course when you have walls that bare, anything on them tends to make them look better
.
Good luck with your decision.
