Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Project suggestions? (long and potentially boring)

Well, the bad news is my events coordinator/accountant/conscience/therapist and (more relevant to this post) landlord has evicted me and my home theater project from the downstairs den. Evidently there are too many black monoliths appearing in the space she prefers to use for entertaining and family purposes. The good news is that in recompense for this dastardly eviction she has given me, with no restriction on monolithic structures, the unused living room space to do with as I please.

Cool. It opens up some possibilities while causing a few minor concerns.

I have been thinking about this for about a week and have come up with the following plan for your expert review and comment. Any suggestions, corrections or non-deductible charitable donations are encouraged and appreciated.

The room is 12x15x8 and cannot be 100% light controlled. There is a rather large window on one side wall that is challenging, but I have had fair success with some blackout curtain experiments. Due to the traffic pattern of the room the viewing distance is pretty much set at 10 feet. Room use will be for SD/HD/DVD viewing 50% of the time and multi-channel music 50% of the time (Can’t wait to watch my beloved and frustrating Panthers in HD/5.1).

Equipment already on hand includes M80s, VP150, Denon’s 3805 and 2910 and an SVS 2039PC+. I plan to add a pair of QS8s for cinema surrounds, a pair of M2s for back surrounds and a pair of M22s for music surrounds. For video (I have always dreamed of having a projector) I am planning on a Panasonic AE900 throwing 15 feet on a 92” Carada screen.

My major areas of concern are location of the 80s. They were purchased to fill a room that exceeds 3000 ft/3 (as were the 3805 and the big honkin’ SVS). The best placement in the den has them nearly 2 feet off of the wall (I sit 14 feet back). In the new room I will be 8 feet back if the in room placement is the same. Any positive local experience with sitting so close to these beasts? Should I look into trading down size wise to the 22s for my mains? I have similar thoughts about the 92” screen size. Although I have been assured that the dreaded SDE isn’t a real issue for the later LCD projectors, 10 feet is less than the 2X viewing distance I have seen recommended.

Sorry for the length, brevity is not one of my attributes.

/Jack

So, are you placing the M80s against the 15' wide wall? If so, I think that's the better arrangement for sound quality, although 10' is going to be a bit short for the big towers to resolve. Maybe toe them in a bit.

I followed the conventional wisdom found here and used QS8s as side surrounds and a pair of M2s for back surrounds. Didn't work for me. I'd recommend QS8s all around for both music and HT. Sounds better to me. If you think about it a pair of speakers projecting sound directly at each other (side surrounds) makes little sense, same for back surrounds.

I listen to both DVD Audio and SACD. Before I put the M2s in the back surround position I used a pair of wonderful Mission DS77 surround speakers for back surround duty. They were great. I think 4 QS8s would work best.

Talk with koiman(Lee) he has four of the M80s in a similar situation and can give you the exact dimensions. I have heard his system several times, and with the 80s being close to the sides and front, they work fine in my opinion.