Thanks so far for all the quality advice. Seeing you mount that beast of an M80 on the wall lets me know what I can do with smaller axiom speakers. Do the speakers come with brackets already to install on the wall?
Note that my M80 in that picture is actually about 2-3 feet from the wall. It’s sitting on a frame built to hang the curtains. At a minimum I would place the M22s, M3s or M2s at least a few inches from the wall. The bracket Ken mentioned does accomplish that but so would putting up a shelf which would cost a lot less and might give you a little room for tweaking the speaker positions. However, I wouldn’t wall mount a speaker unless I had no other choice. When the speaker is free standing you have a lot more capability for tweaking (room permitting) the speaker positions which is key to getting the best sound out of your system. When I had my M22s set up in my bedroom and was also using my bed for seating I placed the M22s right up at the foot of the bed because it gave the best imaging compared to being closer to the wall the TV was against.
I am a bit concerned with the layout of my room. I currently am watching movies on a bed and mattress of about 26" high. I usually sit up when I watch movies. I have a 46" TV sitting on a 16" TV stand and when I sit in bed I am usually eye level to the top of the TV.
Ideally you want the screen so that your eye level is about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the screen. I find that anywhere from 1/3 up to the bottom works fine for me. This both helps reduce eye/neck strain and also creates a more theater like, natural and impressive image (looks bigger).
The thing that concerns me is I am running two Polk Monitor 60s and my ears are way above the top of the speakers. I know its not ideal but it is the best I can do to accommodate a home theater in my bedroom. Is the height effecting the sound much?
The height could be effecting the sound depending on the vertical dispersion characteristics of the speakers. Most speaker are designed to sit with the tweeters near ear level. Also with the sound field coming from below you it may not sound as enveloping or as natural especially if you can localize the sound as coming from below the screen. Having your center above the screen (as long as the mains and center aren’t to far apart vertically) can help pull the front soundstage up some giving you more a wall-of-sound vs a row of speakers.
I think you would benefit from moving your TV up both visually and if you can also elevate your speakers sonically.
Considering I have room to move my TV up to eye level, I would be able to fit an M3 vertically on the stand as my center channel, so all is not so bad. What are your thoughts?
I have also evaluated the benefits of both the M3 and M22 as center channels. I don't think I would be losing out on much going with M3 and it would also fit very nicely under my TV when the TV is mounted.
I have never heard the M3 so I don’t know how well it matched sonically with the M2, M22, M60, and M80 speakers. It’s the one Axiom speaker designed to sound a little different than the others so for me I know I would never use it as a center for the other speakers because hearing any difference would drive me crazy. If I were to use an M3 center I would also use them as mains. IMO the M2 would be a better, actually perfect sonic match for the M22s if that’s what you are getting as mains. Someone else with real experience comparing the M22s and M3s may have a different opinion.
To recap based on what you are saying I would suggest the following:
2xM22 mains, 1xM2 center, and 2xQS8 surrounds.
Build your own stands for the M22s and M2. Note that M2 could still go above your TV if you built an “L” shaped stand at sits behind your TV with the short leg of the “L” resting on the top of your screen.
I would wall mount the QS8s with the included bracket unless you just can't get them positioned well in which case I would make either shelves or stands with a hole cut out in the bottom for the downward firing driver.
Elevate your TV to get your eye level closer to the bottom of the screen (at least below the halfway point). And elevate your speakers so that the tweeters are at or slightly above ear level.
Consider mounting your center speaker above the TV if you can’t get it elevated close to ear level below the TV. I really prefer my center speaker above my screen with the mains elevated so the tweeters are about half way up the screen. I find that the “wall-of-sound” created by elevating the center channel is much more engaging than having all the speakers in a row below the screen as long at the difference in height between the mains and center isn’t to great.
Note that a lot of the suggestions I’m making are “ideal” which isn’t necessary nor always the best for everyone which brings up another point that several of my suggestions are my personal preferences based on a lot of testing. Every room + speaker + listener combination is different so what is considered ideal by or preferable by some may not be what works best for you. Finding the best results with your own setup will only be found by tweaking, which is why I always advocate flexibility in speaker placement if at all possible.
Cheers,
Dean
