Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Jumping from 5.1 to 7.1. Need Rear speaker advice

Given your description of the setup I would say go with another set of QS8s.

Personally, I wouldn't want direct radiating coming from above at an angle at that short of a distance. They will have a directionality to the sound and make the range of seating positions quite limited. The diffused nature of the QS8s will create a much better overall "ambiance" with less directionality. With the direct radiating in those positions it will always seem like the sounds are coming from above even if they aren't supposed to. If they were lower and further away behind you then direct radiating would probably work fine.

Welcome to the forum Foobarred!

Tom,
I gotta say you are drinkin' with a better species of animal now. Rooooowl! I think the first lady spilled a little beer, but I'm not sure. I'll keep looking...

Oh, and on topic...
JohnK hit the nail on the head. It cannot be said one is better than the other (RF vs DF)
- what is the size of your room?
- you say you want to mount the rears 'higher up on the wall'. would they be much higher than the side Q's? Guys, correct me if I am wrong but I believe you want to mount backs in as similar a height to the sides as possible.
- You say you will mount to the ceiling. If you are not planning on mounting QS8's within a few inches or so from the back wall, they will lose some low end. It may take 1 or more feet from wall to lose some low end on the Q's, I'm not sure. I just know that my rears being mid ceiling mounted, the QS8's lost too much low end for my taste (measured by what Audyssey would set the x-over vs. a direct firing speaker.

For the low price of $30 return freight, you can order a pair of QS8' and M2's to test (especially if you do not have a pair of M2 sized DF speakers to test against QS8's.

If you are mounting your back speakers very near the back wall, the Q's may work very well. If away from the wall some, I'd test both types.

Good luck.

Thanks!