I’ve been running 9.2 (actually have an 11.2 setup but my Onkyo 3007 doesn’t let me use wide and height at the same time).
The wide vs height debate is room dependent. The farther apart your L/R mains are from your L/R surrounds the more wide speakers will fill in the gap. The higher your ceiling the more height speakers will “resonate” filling the room with ambient sounds.
The reason for QS height speakers is everything coming out of the height channel is ambient (e.g. rain, wind, echoes) exactly what the QS is designed for. I’ve tried both M22 and QS8s as height speakers and the QS8s were noticeably better and allowed for more flexible placement on the side wall rather than the front where the direct radiators would have to have been.
The M2 is a perfect wide speaker for either the M80s or the M22s since the wide speakers share so much sonic information with their corresponding main they should be as close a sonic match as possible. I’ve found that because the wide speakers come into play more often they are the ones I use the majority of the time. I actually hardly ever use the height speakers any more unless I’m doing a demo of a specific scene with lots of ambient sound. Again this is room dependent and my room is much longer than my last one leaving a sonic gap between the mains and surrounds which the wide speakers fill in nicely. In my previous room I doubt they would have made a difference since the room wasn’t as narrow.
Another thing about a long narrow room is that I’ve found the rear or back speakers are actually more important than the height speakers in creating a 360 degree sound stage. So there is really no simple answers as to which is the best choice since it’s going to be very room dependent.
