I would agree with Murph and Mojo; there's nothing more impressive than a good LFE session. Personally, I'd try to stretch the budget a little and get the M60's and a VTF-3.
I'm
still confused about the surround placement, though.
I understand the ones on the beam are behind you, which is good. I'm not sure moving them farther apart is going to make a huge difference, and you won't know for sure until you acquire the QS8's anyway. But then you mentioned that the "side surrounds for 7.1" are also wired. Typically, a 5.1 setup uses "side" speakers either just in front of or just behind the listener, and a 7.1 system adds "rear" speakers behind the listener. So, before you go relocating the speakers on the beam, can you draw me a map or take a picture or something so I can better understand the layout of the room, particularly where ALL the speaker wiring is located? I'm a visual learner
In other words, maybe you want to use the wiring for what you thought were the 6/7 channels as the 4/5 channels depending upon where they are located.
I'm sure the Onkyo will be fine. My experience was that, when I bought my low-end Denon several years ago, I thought I'd "never need or want more power" but now I'm getting itchy in that regard and my upgrade path is more expensive because I'd need to acquire both an amp AND a new processor.
