Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Storm damage to HT room?

Using M80s as wide speakers would IMO be a waste of money. M2 speakers work just as well as there is really no significant bass going to the wide speakers. I even swapped out my M22s wides for a pair of M2s and can’t tell the difference.

As for speaker separation I would use this as a starting point.

http://www.audyssey.com/technology/dsx.html

Placing your wide speakers close to your mains wouldn't help much if at all. It might also cause interference as the mains and their corresponding wide speakers share a lot of the same audio information in the midrange and up.

Also note that if your main speakers are farther off center than 30 degrees, say closer to 45 degrees then wide speakers don’t help much either. Unless for some reason your surround speakers are way behind your seating.

My screen is 9’8” wide and I have my L/R mains placed to the far left and right so that the front soundstage corresponds to the on screen action perfectly . . . well at least when its well mastered to match the on screen action. The wides mostly fill in the front sides with ambient sounds like crowd, office, machinery and other noises that would fill an area. Occasionally they also enhance hard pans coming from or going offstage in either direction. On well mastered audio tracks there are often voices coming from off stage L/R when a character off screen is talking. However I find this most in video games and anime titles, only a few movies are mastered to where you hear things coming from off to the left or right. Some Star Wars and the LOTR movies come to mind.

Yeah, that's good for perfect room conditions, but mine is screen from wall to wall. So, I guess that you are saying that it wouldn't benefit me, and could possibly make the sound worse. If I did go this route, then I should only use M2s. If I did do this, then possibly, putting M2s in the lower corners of the screen for Wides and M2s in the higher corners of the screen for Heights might actually work? There would only be a few inches between screen and ceiling also, so no room outside the screen boundary for heights.

Just making plans on where to run wires and mount speakers.

Kind of like this:


Also, could use QS8 for heights mounted in the same upper corner spots shown.

My screen also takes up almost all of the wall. There is no room or even place to mount wide speakers on my front wall which is why they are on my side walls. Unless you don’t have the room on the sides or just don’t like the look maintaining the angle is more important than which wall the speakers are on. That’s another reason I prefer the M2s even to the M22s is they aren’t obtrusive hanging off the front side walls.

If you have multiple rows of seating that are far enough apart you could even try using double surrounds and or double wides, one set for each row. Sort of like theaters have multiple speakers along the walls.

Only 1 row of 3 seats. It's a small theater. About 11' wide by 13-15' feet deep by 6'9" high. I think I'll plan on my layout I have above for now. All speakers will be pointed straight forward. Using M2's for wide and QS8's for heights. It may not be optimum, but at least I can take advantage of all channels and be future proofed for a little while.

I plan on QS8 for surround left and right slightly behind head position and with in ceiling mounted for rears because there won't be a rear wall that can work and I need to conserve space.

All of the above should provide an ample surround sound experience.

Edit: As an afterthought, I could leave the M2 where I had planned in the lower corners of the screen, only aim them at the side walls, bouncing the sound off of the side walls, creating a wider effect. (Or find a speaker that may be more designed for this).