I am posting this to help out anyone who may be wondering how many surround speakers are necessary for their space. Note that my conclusions below are a result of my listening experiences within my environment. Results for you may differ. I've posted pictures so that you may compare my environment with yours.

Background on my environmnent

I have a 4,000 cubic foot, acoustically bright room with speaker distances as follows from my sweet spot that is located at the centre of my couch:

a) two side QS8s mounted about 11 feet away and slightly behind my sweet spot,
b) two rear QS8s mounted about 13 feet away from the sweet spot,
c) M80s and M150 8 feet away.

My Denon pumps about a half watt for music and a few watts for movies into my M80s during normal listening. All of my speakers are calibrated at 75dB with noise from my Denon using my SPL meter. My EP600 is set to 80dB.









Surround Experience

I have been extremely pleased with my system for DD & DTS. I've also been pleased with PLII and Neo but only for cable viewing and a small selection of music. I wanted to answer the following questions once and for all:

1. Are 4 QS8s over-kill for my space?

2. Can I improve my listening experience by varying the surround configuration?

Listening Set-up

I used the following selections:

1. DD Movie - King Kong,
2. DD Music - Eagles: Farewell Tour I,
3. DTS 6.1 Movie - Blade III,
4. PLII: M & Neo6:M - Oscar Peterson: We get Requests & Diana Krall: Love Scenes

I tried the following configurations:

1. Current physical configuration and settings,
2. Same as 1 but with rears off,
3. Current physical configuration with just rears on,
4. Rears wired to the amp as sides. I made sure to adjust the delay settings in my Denon for the longer rear distance.

Listening Results

The two charts below show the results in two different ways. The first chart is basically a summary of the second.





Conclusions for my environment

1. Four QS8s are not over-kill for my space as I need both pairs depending on what I listen to.

2. Movies and DPLII:M (and most likely DPLII:C) sound better with the sides off and rears on. DD (and most likely DTS) music sounds better with the sides on; rears are unnecessary. A "fuller" sound is experienced with the sides on.

Note that all four QS8s do not need to be on at once. This could very well be due to my bright acoustical environment. If your environment is more dead, you will most likely benefit from all four on at once.