A bit long-winded, but I'll get to why I posted in this thread.
While visiting my sister in Lynnwood, we stopped in at a home theater store since we noticed the sign, and we were waiting for my nephew as he went to an eye appointment. We told the salesman there we weren't really in the market, but rather just killing time as we waited for someone. There wasn't anyone else around, though, so he took time to just shoot the breeze and ultimately give a brief demonstration some of their wares. Almost at the beginning, he asked what kind of system I had at home, and I mentioned my Axiom speakers. He knew the name, but he didn't really have anything to say, but a minute later he was talking about an amp they had hooked up, and it was a Bryston. I said, "Oh, Axiom worked with Bryston on their speakers." He pointed at a pair of speakers toward the front of the demo room. Oh, yeah, a pair of Bryston speakers.
We had to leave before I could get him to fire them up, but he did show off the first battle scene in Master & Commander with the M&K speakers that were hooked up behind the acoustically transparent (Seymour) screen, and he was also showing off the Epson laser projector. Unfortunately, they weren't set up particularly well. The system wasn't strained at all, even at the demo volume, but it still sounded muddled. The image quality fared no better. It didn't seem to be calibrated well, with the contrast being pumped too high without the picture being as vibrant as I'd hoped for a laser projector. I was polite and said the demo was a lot of fun, but I came away with an even higher appreciation for my own setup. Not that I think mine is set up perfectly, but it's still nice to know mine can compare favorably to what a store uses to show off.
As far as brands, besides Bryston, I saw Wharfedale, Triangle, and M&K for loudspeakers. I can't remember what the subwoofers were at the front of the room, but he had a giant SVS sub at the back of the room which he admitted he hadn't yet integrated well into the system. Bryston amps, Emotiva amps, tube amps he said a friend makes (100 watts/channel). Audioquest cables, which he was almost apologetic for carrying, and he called them the Monster Cable of the high-end. I was surprised to see both SVS and Emotiva. He didn't say anything about actually carrying the SVS, but he said he was trying to be the first, or one of the first, brick & mortar stores carrying Emotiva.
In any case, the reason I was posting here is because of his talk of the M&K speakers he had hooked up for the demo. He made the point several times that M&K speakers were used when creating different audio standards, and they were used to mix the Star Wars movies. He made special mention of the tripole surrounds. They not only shoot out at an angle like the QSes, but they shoot directly out as well, which he thought would be great for Atmos. Still fills in the gaps, but then also has a sense of that more precise placement. I don't think he had an Atmos processor actually set up yet, but it would have been nice to put that to the test. I'd be interested in seeing them directly compared to the QS8s in an Atmos setup.
I enjoyed spending some time talking to someone who just loves the hobby, even if the demo didn't really wow me. It was nice that he took all of that time despite no prospect of a sale.
