Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Surround speaker positioning

First, I'm not yet an Axiom owner, but soon. I have a couple custom wood finish samples in the mail, so once I've got my wife's approval on the finish, I'll be ordering. Right now it looks like a pair of M50's, a VP100, and four QS4's. Not sure about the sub...still researching that part.

I guess I've got at least 6 weeks to ponder this question and wanted to get some advice from the community. My room is 12' x 15' with 8' ceilings.

I have a concern about the mounting of the surround speakers because of some "obstructions" that prevent the optimal placement of these speakers. Out of the 4 surround and rear channel speakers, three will need to be mounted right up next to the ceiling in order to clear a door or window. Placement guidelines suggest that surround speakers be mounted a few feet above ear level and it looks like mine will have to be quite a bit higher than that. Also, I am worried that the top-firing driver in the QS4 will be too close to the ceiling. I saw someone on the message board mention tilting the speaker down towards the listening area to give it a bit more room on the top. I'm not sure if this is necessary or not. If so, how much tilt?

Next, I'm assuming that the fourth speaker needs to be mounted along the same horizontal plane as the other three speakers. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

Looks like I can do either a wall or ceiling mount for these guys. If I don't need to tilt, I can use the regular mounts. Which mount do you think would give me what I'm looking for while still remaining fairly low profile?

Thanks,

Ken.

Replying to my own post. Well, after some pointed research on the Internet, it seems my listening position will be too close to the back wall to handle a 7.1 setup, so I guess it's 5.1 for me now. My couch is backed right up against the wall. I can't move it out from the wall more than 6" for various reasons.

A slight tilt downward on the surround speakers towards the listening position looks to be in order due to the height at which I need to mount them.

Any other suggestions on placement?

Ken, welcome. Yes, if you're almost right up against the back wall there really isn't enough room behind you for the back surrounds in a 7.1 setup to develop their effect. So, for the 5.1 setup position the QSs either on the back wall spread out as widely as possible(within a few inches of the side walls)or on the side walls almost at the back wall. As far as height, if you have them about 7' up(allowing a few inches for the top driver)rather than 6', this is no cause for concern and they don't need to be tilted downward.

Here are some pics of my surrounds, I didn't have to tilt them but I have them barely 3" from the ceiling with out the tilt.


Right Surround



Rear Center


Left surround

Thanks to everyone for the pointers! I was originally going with the QS4's, but now that I am no longer going 7.1, I'm considering bumping the surround speakers from QS4's to a pair of QS8's. The room isn't large (12'Lx15'Wx8'H), so would they be a bit too much?

My wife describes me as a "go big or go home" kind of personality. I prefer to look at myself as a little more refined than that. I don't mind spending a little more cash up front to get the job done right the first time.

Realized that I have a diagram of the room layout and it might help with understanding the layout.

Hey Krich,

That's a very helpful diagram. I prefer the green placement option, with blue second.

If you want to keep them "low profile" then I would go with the blue option. This way you can use the standard T-bracket wall mount. The QS8s look very nice flush to the wall, even better if you can hide the cable behind them completely. Also a less expensive option than using the full-metal bracket. And it looks like this way you can mount them 1 or 2 feet above the listeners ear level, vs. close to the ceiling, so you won't have to tilt them at all.

Whatever you end up doing, the QS line is very accomodating and will perform great. So do what you think will be best for your room and then enjoy.