I'll jump in here just with some thoughts and maybe some questions just to try to get a better feel for what you are trying to do.
I understand the desire for side placement, and fully agree with that. The QS speakers are very forgiving, but I had them on a rear wall for a 5.1 setup many years ago and they did OK, but when I was able to put them to the sides, they did a lot better.
Don't be totally sucked into the height placement "black hole." There were points in time where people put them at ear level, then people would say 1-2 feet above ear level, then back to ear level again. Heck, I had mine about 18" above ear level when I had my QS8s. Then I started planning for Atmos and DTS:X and replaced the QS8s with on-wall M3s and used them that way for over a year. It wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I finally lowered my surround speakers to be ear level again as long as they weren't block by something else. In my case, since I have a 2nd row of seats and those seats are about 13" higher than my front row, my rear surrounds (7.2.4 setup) are higher than front row ear height.
I watch movies all of the time that don't have Dolby Atmos sound, but a regular 7.1 soundtrack, and it still sound VERY good with the speakers at ear level.
With the QS8s, you have a lot of forgiveness in their placement. Heck, after my first use of QS8s that I mentioned near the beginning of my post (where I didn't have side walls), I moved everything into a very odd shaped room where I *could* place them on side walls, but one of those walls was at an angle, and the speakers were actually in front of my couch as the room was only 15' deep and I had the couch up against the rear wall (104" screen, so I didn't want to be any closer at the time). Things sounded great, even with the inability to place the side surrounds anywhere near evenly on each side.
So I would say that if you are really worried about it, then just experiment a bit before going out and buying something. Heck, there is a picture around here somewhere in which someone set their QS speakers on soup cans or something so that they weren't blocking the bottom firing woofer. You could set up a table with a box or two on it and some cans (two per QS) to put them into different height locations and see if you can tell the difference. This won't be 100% accurate as you will be putting a surface only a few inches under the QS speaker (the box or table), where a stand would be unblocked, but it might prove that you are OK with the Axiom QS stands, or that you really need something else.
Another option if you really want the speakers above ear level is using ceiling mounts. Axiom even sells a bracket that works with the QS speakers to mount them from the ceiling. A number of people here have done that with good results as well.
If you ever plan to go to Atmos/DTS:X audio, you will be putting these at ear level anyway, but it sounds like if that were to happen, it probably wouldn't be for a while.
Lastly, don't get those stands from Best Buy. They have the bracket right under the bottom woofer area of the QS speakers. Even if you could somehow rig them up to work, that would be potentially compromising to the sound that the QS can create.
