grunt - you mentioned that height speakers might not add much in a room with high ceilings? My room has a vaulted ceiling so I might encounter this. But do you think they might overcome my current side surrounds placement? My side surrouns are on the FMS stands and not mounted on the wall. As such they are marginally above ear level and partially blocked by the sectional couch. They still sound awesome but I've been wondering if they'd sound better placed higher. Do you think the heights would help fill them in for some (not all, obviously) of the ambient effects?
Placing your side surrounds up high is IMO a mixed bag. Generally I think they sound better a couple of feet above ear level as this seems to be the best compromise between spreading out the ambient surround effects and still keeping the directional ones from sounding like they are coming from to high up. Also, having your side surrounds up a couple feet above ear level helps overcome furniture like the backs of chairs from blocking them.
If you don’t plan on placing your side surrounds up higher then a pair of M2s probably would help fill in the ambient effect more. It’s just that with speakers like the QS8s as side and or rear surrounds place up high especially in a room with vaulted ceilings like mine they fill the room with so much ambient sound that the height speakers don’t add that much more, it’s noticeable but not a huge difference.
One thing you might consider is that if you want to use wide speakers later in your other room you could always re-task the pair you are picking up to use as height speakers now. Also not that wide speakers don’t have to be placed directly outside the main. More important is the angle to the listening position as shown below.
http://www.audyssey.com/technology/dsx.htmlIn order to accommodate the angles for the both the height and wide speakers I had to put them on the side walls. So my wide speakers are only about 2-3 feet in front of my seating right along the side walls. In my narrow room they do a fantastic job of filling the gap in the side surround sound stage between the mains and the side surrounds caused by the narrowness of my room. So if you get a pair of M2s at least try them out in the wide positions if you think there is any way at all you can fit them. Even just mounting a small shelf to hold them though for the test you could just use boxes or milk cartons.
I've been meaning to post a question about my side surround placements anyways. What do you guys think about using them with the FMS stands at or just above ear level? Has anyone tried placing the stands on blocks to raise them? I've considered this but I'm concerned about stability. They're pretty stable now on the FMS stand but not sure how they'd be if I raised them.
I presently have my QS8s on FMS/QS stands sitting on milk crates and boxes because I’ve been to lazy to build proper shelves. No I don’t recommend this as even just sitting on the stands I’ve knocked them over several times speakers have survived but had to order one replacement grill since all 4 pegs broke off. With the new magnetic grills this would happen. If you wanted to raise them w/o mounting them to the walls you would be better off finding a way to hang them from the ceiling than place the stands on top of something.
If you can find a way to raise them up to a couple feet above ear level I think you will find a noticeable improvement.
Cheers,
Dean
