I have both M22s and QS8s and tried both as rear speakers and preferred the QS8s for all uses movies, gaming and music. They are uncanny in their ability to provide either ambient enveloping sound or directional cues depending on what’s needed. The M22s provided the directionality but not as much ambiance. However, with the limited room I had to experiment I found that the further back the M22 rears were the better job they did and if far enough back might actually perform better than the QS8s as rear speakers but won’t be able to confirm that until I close on a house in a few weeks.
While some music, Dark Side of the Moon SACD comes to mind, are mixed to have sound coming from all directions at times, most multi-channel stuff I’ve found uses the surrounds and rears to recreate the ambient sounds of the venue and that’s where the QS8s beat the M22s easily in my opinion.
You could always order a pair of M22s and see which you like best. I think return shipping is only about $30 for a pair of them. You could call Axiom and check it out. But be careful that was my intent to test which was best and ship back the looser, however, the M22s sounded so good as mains I just had to keep them for a second zone.
Cheers,
Dean
