Well, I ordered an M80/VP150/QS8 system last Friday. Thanks, Joe, Allan and Brent for the advice. Also, thanks to mhorgel for the generous in-house demo of his M60/VP100/QS8 system. I honestly don't know how my system could sound any better than his, but if it can, I'm going to be one happy camper.
I ordered from the Factory outlet so it'll be close to 3 weeks before I get them. I got FO M80's and QS-8's but a new VP-150 (6 week wait on the black VP-150's in FO) because 3 weeks is about all my "instant gratification" buffer can possibly stand.
I finally (after 5 years) got my surround sound speaker wire run the way I want - My wife actually pulled the carpet from under the baseboards and I ran partsexpress 12Ga 2 Conductor wire around to the surrounds areas. I haven't pulled them from the baseboard up through the wall (7ft up) yet but I'm going to wait for the QS-8's so I can put in junction boxes and do it right. My wife then repulled the carpet back under the baseboards (she's mine, and you can't have her).
I'll have my Polk RT2000p's around for a while so I can A/B compare them to the Axioms and I'm also planning on inviting another Lexingtonian who is getting Ascend CMT-340's over to take a listen to those on my system as well.
I'm going to keep the crossover set (system wide - unfortunately) to 80Hz on my system as it currently is with my Polks and dual SVS 20-39 PCi but I was curious if that has caused any holes in the sound with the surrounds and center for anyone? The VP-150 (if I'm reading right) has it's -3dB point at 85Hz and the QS-8's at 95Hz.
One other question about the surrounds - while I can still pull some carpet. Currently, my downstairs is upside down "U" shaped (sort of). The couch is along the wall and the projector screen is about 14' away. The surrounds will be from 11-14' away on the right and left walls but both of those walls extend BEHIND the listening position. Is this potentially a problem? Should I think of mounting my R/L surrounds on the 6' back wall behind my couch right above my head?
Here's a crude (best I can do in ASCII) drawing
F=M80
C=VP150
S=QS-8
K=Kitchen
*=Living space
*****F**C**F***
***************
***************
S****_COUCH***S
**K**______****
*****______****
*****
*****
