Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Did I mount my QS8's high enough?

Hey guys

My theatre room is coming along nicely, hence why I haven't been around too much lately... Been spending 25 - 30 hours a week down there but it's almost done... Exciting!

Anyway, I mounted the QS8's tonight. Long story short, my room has 8' ceilings, but on one side there is a soffit which makes it about a 6.5' ceiling the length of the room about a foot or so out from the wall. Because of this I ran the wiring when I was building the walls at 52" from the floor. I figured this would give me a tweeter height around 56" which I thought was a good compromise between sitting and standing.

Fast forward to today, and the top of the QS8's are at 5' from the ground (3' from ceiling). This puts the bottom of the speaker about 12" above my ears while sitting. Does this sound ok? I couldn't go much more than 6" higher anyway without getting too close to the soffit, and the other side I wanted the same height for form factor and appearance. The FMS stand Axiom sells for the QS8 is only 38" tall.

I haven't mounted the W's in the front yet, but I think I might move them down a hair to about a 50 - 52" tweeter height.

Tater, the idea is to have surround effects coming from above ear level, and 2-3' above is a common suggestion. If your room doesn't allow for this, a foot or so less won't be critical.

More significantly, your front speakers should have the tweeters at ear level, if possible, so I'd think that about 36" would be better. Consider an upside-down positioning if you want the speakers higher in the wall.

I’ve tested lots of locations for my QS8s and found that anything from ear level to about 3’ higher works great. Any higher than 3 feet and I notice some front to rear pans seen to gain altitude as they move to the back. However, I find this mostly effect hard pans like in video games, very few 5.1 music tracks but usually not movies. The biggest improvement I’ve found from raising the height of the surrounds and rear speakers it so that the seating headrest doesn’t block them from your ears.

Git er done tater, we miss ya!


Well just for the record my QS8's hang about 2 and a half feet from my ear level and sound awesome. The biggest question is... how do yours sound to you? Or have you gotten that far yet, is your system hooked up and playing yet, or still in the construction phase?

Thanks for the reassurance guys, they are high enough the back of the couch won't be an issue for blocking sound... That is for sure. I just didn't want to get too close to the bottom of the soffit with the one side. I think if I am playing the movie or games loud enough it probably doesn't make much difference anyway as the room will be full of sound regardless.

I will try and get the W22's lower... I will need to look at it tonight but I don't want the bottom of the speaker below the recess in the wall for the screen, that would look off to me. If I mount them flush with the bottom of the recess that will probably put them at 44 - 46" tweeter height.

Micah, I am still constructing but really all that is left to do is install the baseboards and have the carpet installed... Hoping to have it done within 10 days or so.

As the Axiom FAQ says, the QS seriews speakers are very versatile and are quite forgiving when it comes to placement.

"Ideally, surround speakers should be either wall-mounted or stand-mounted to either side of the couch or primary listening area, from one to six feet higher than seated listeners' ears, and slightly forward or rearwards of the listening area if you wish. Axiom's Quadpolar surrounds are especially versatile and can yield excellent performance with stand or wall-mounting to the rear as well as at side locations."

I don't think you have a thing to worry about.

I read that as well in the little pamphlet (sp?) that comes with them... Just wanted to double check. Another foot up is probably better but I don't have the option unless I wanted the top driver on one of them only about 4 - 6" from the bottom of the soffit.

I just can't wait to get them cranked up

4-6" of room is about all they require, you would be OK if you want to go that route..

I would, but I already mounted some horizontal 2x4's behind the wall to screw the bracket into and I don't feel like opening the wall to move them. If it was a big problem, I would. I just measured the couch and the highest point on the back of it is 36". The bottom of the speaker is at 51".

You don't need 2x4's to hold the QS8s onto the wall, if you are dealing with drywall just a few drywall anchors holding the T brackets will do just fine. I used EZ Anchors in the appropriate size with success...

Our QS8s are about two and half feet above our ears while seated and they sound perfectly fine.