1. Has anyone tried a 9.2 setup? Did people appreciate the difference between it and a 7.2/7.1?
My setup it 11.2, however my Onkyo only supports 9.2 either wide or height but not both at the same time. My room is 13x21x8-12 foot vaulted. Using wide speakers in the narrow room makes a huge difference in the width of the front soundstage and helping it blend with the surround speakers. However, if you have a room that allows placing your mains far enough apart wide speakers won’t help as much.
IMO height speakers, DSX or Dolby aren’t as impressive in my room as the wide speakers. This is mainly because the wide speakers come into play during almost every scene where as the height speakers tend to be more specialized only really kicking in during certain scenes, mostly those with all-round ambient sounds like wind, rain , echoes and some music. I also think that having a vaulted ceiling helps add to their effect.
I really can’t tell any difference between Dolby or DSX height speakers. I almost exclusively use DSX because I find the wide speakers add more in my room and there is no Dolby wide setting on my receiver.
3. Will the QS8V3 be a suitable match for my M80ti & QS8V1 with regards to a 9.2 setup? i.e. can I use the QS8V3's for the "height" or "width" channel?
I have a pair of QS8v3 in use with my other v2 speakers and can’t hear the difference. Since they mostly produce ambient sounds I doubt any difference is going to be noticeable even with the “ti” versions.
QS speakers are the best for height channels. OTOH M2 speakers are a perfect match as wide speakers for the M80s. The QS8 don’t work very well as wide speakers compared to the M2s or M22s. Also I think the M22s are overkill as wide speakers, no need to go any larger than the M2s.
