Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Side surround options

Hi all,

I currently run a 5.1 setup consisting of the following:
M60 fronts
M40 side surrounds
VP100 center
HSU VTF-MKII
All powered by an MPS-2 via a Yamaha RX-V1400.

The setup sounds awesome but want to move up to a 7.1 setup. I enjoy listening to 7CH setreo a lot so the question I have is the following:

Would I be better off getting something like the M3's for the back surrounds since they match the other speakers(7CH stereo) or moving the M40's to the back and mounting QS8's on the side? I don't have much space on the back and the advantage of getting M3's would be that I can place them on a shelf on the back wall. What about M22 for the rears. I'm open to options.
Thanks in advance!

You should get Qs8's for the "side" surrounds, no bookshelf or floorstanding speaker can give you the same experience. They were designed to give you the same experience as the recording engineers intended in theaters.

As far as the rears, if you don't have room, maybe sell the m40's, or keep them for another room, and get something smaller for the rear channel. jm2cents

I agree, QS8's for channels 4 and 5.

Depending on how far you sit from the rear wall, you could do QS8's again if you are close to it, or a direct speaker like M2/M3 if you are further away from it. You could keep the M40's but it's kind of a waste for them, really.

Thanks for the replies.

Will the QS8's sound as good with music? I'm a 70% music, 30% Movies person and like to listen in 7CH stereo as well as DPL IIx for music.

When I listen to music it is 90% 2-channel with the m80's and subs. I don't really listen to any multi channel tracks. I have occasionally used 7-stereo mode or PLIIx and I think the Q's do a very good job.

I have heard that many like to use bookshelfs for the rear channels for music listening. However, for movies, nothing can give you the same experience as the Q's, at least for the side surrounds.

I listen to either all multi-channel music, or 2 channel processed by PLIIx (never use the panorama-type 7-stereo mode, so can't comment on that) . The QS8s do an amazing job reproducing the ambiance extracted by Dolby's technology. But even the more direct mixes of DVD-As and SACDs are still beautifully handled.

Don't worry about the QS8s with music.

I agree, I think they give you a nice spacial feeling to the music, kinda like being on stage...

....and they're cute!

Thanks again for the info.

I'll probably get a pair of QS8's for the sides, move the M40's to my bedroom and get a pair of M3's for the back.