Hey farmhaus25, welcome to the forum.
While I haven't recieved my Qs8's yet I thought I'd offer some encouragement as I know how dissappointing it can be if something doesn't live up to ones expectations immediately after getting it. I did alot of searching for speakers and by all accounts I think you probably have one of the best surround speakers available in the Qs8's. Every review and every post I've read praises these surrounds as the best they've ever heard.
My advice, and my experience with the Axiom sub I recently recieved, is it does take some time and patients to set things up properly. I understand your limitations with having kids but as Alan suggested I would try to find the very best placement for your room. Then once you have the very best placement try to work from this position to a position that is more acceptable for you. In making the changes to position try to understand what if any differences you are causing. By doing this you'll likely beable to find the best compromise for you. Definitely by all accounts the QS8's are very forgiving of placement and you should beable to find a position that works very well.
Don't forget to sweat the details such as checking polarity, assuring distances are entered correctly in the reciever, and loudness for each speaker set properly. Even make sure that all the drivers are working in each surround.
Don't forget that proper surrounds are not really supposed to be heard. This sounds strange but this is how they are supposed to work. So except in instances where the sound is mixed either as a hard left or right you will not likely think the speakers are on. Instead the surrounds like all the speakers should dissapear and you should simply feel immersed in sound, like you are are really there in the scene.
I hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.
Cheers, Jag
