Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater QS4s or M2s for surrounds

Looks like were in agreement on lots of things....including how poor most theaters sound in comparison with a good home system

Glad to hear that I'm not alone on the desire for more full-range speakers,too!!
Rich.

Thanks for the input everyone.

My room is very narrow - about 7 feet seperating the surrounds. Maybe I need to go with the QS4s.

95% music in use.

The M2s would stick out more AND need about 2-3 inches behind them for their bass to sound right I believe. I might knowck my head on them daily if I go that direction.

DARN

let's see;.....if I had to choose between a questionable sound difference in a smaller room, and bumps bruses and contusions, I know for sure what I'd pick!

Far fewer sharp edges on the QS series alright

Funny, they don't advertise the lack of sharp edges on the product information page!

The QS4s are smaller - or at least look much smaller than the M2s with their slopes - so - maybe I will just buy one at a time from b-stock.

>>95% music in use.

If your system is going to be used for 95% music then it might make more sense to configure a 5.1 music system instead, with M2s behind the couch rather than beside it. That will take better advantage of the room size, will be ideal for music, and will also be pretty decent (but not ideal) for movies.

Do you have some distance behind the couch ?

Hmm

The way it is set up now - the M22s are slightly in front of the couch, the M2 is over the couch, the Athena surrounds are about 10 feet away. In other words - the M22s are aimed away from the couch, as is the M2 - toward where I sit.

My wife is usually on the couch and doesn't care about surround sound. I usually sit at the dining room table which is more or less between the surrounds.

The kitchen is in back of me - back wall is about 12 feet behind me.

I could possibly put M2s back there instead of QS4s parrellel with my head. They would be a ways back though.

Against my better judgment - here is the living room / dining room as taken from the kitchen - after a month or so of my two year old redecorating and no guests coming over. (what a mess).

Picture taken from the kitchen. Just a link - not a picture - I have some shame!

http://www.8th-day.org/contactus.htm - look at the bottom of the page.

link

Ahh, now I get it. I wrongly assumed the couch was the primary listening position, so substitute "sweet spot" everywhere I said couch

If you were going to do heavy movie watching I would say that is DEFINITELY a room that would take full advantage of QS surrounds. For mostly music, though, I'm not so sure...

If you are pretty sure you are going to stay mostly with music I would go for M2s behind you, either on the back wall or the side walls.

If you wanted a "least cost" experiment for music you could try :

- make sure the receiver can handle "phantom center", ie setting the center speaker to NONE splits the signal between the mains

- pick up a single M2 and use your existing center to get a pair

- mount the two speakers well behind you on the side walls if possible

Again, if there is any chance of your family watching relatively more movies you are probably better off going with QSs...

Convenient link added by bugbitten -

oh darn - now even more people will see it!

Actually, thanks for the link Bugbitten.