Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Need advice for new home theater

I am building a new home theater system in my home. The room I am placing it in is 16'X16' with a 9' ceiling. With the arrangement of doors and the fireplace, I will have to place the TV off to the right side of the room. I plan to purchase the Pioneer VSX-1020-K receiver, which is capable of 7.1. I have a speaker budget of about $2000. The center channel speaker will be placed in a component cabinet below the TV. It will be mostly used for home theater, with occasional music listening.

Here are my questions:

Which Axiom 7.1 system should I purchase?

How should I place the left and right channel speakers? Should I mount them beside the TV (on the right side of the room) or should I mount them above the picture molding on either side of the room? I do plan on mounting the surrounds above the picture molding at the 8' level.

Thanks

Welcome!!

If you could supply a picture or drawing of the room it would be more helpful.

I had my surrounds up near the ceiling like that before and I must say they sound even better only 2' above seated ear level in my new house.

The mains should be set as wide apart as possible upto as far apart as you are away from them to form an equilateral triangle(this is the ideal). You can mount them higher up and angle them down but again the ideal is to have the mains with the tweeters situated around seated ear level.

There is no way for me to get the surrounds at ear level due to the windows, doors and the fireplace. Only the left and right channel speakers could be at ear level, and only if they flank the TV which will be on the right side of the room. To get the triangle, I would have to place them up high as well.

I will try to figure out how to get a diagram into the forum.

Oh, you don't need to have your surrounds at ear level.

If windows doors etc are involved then you have to place them where you can. the system will still sound good. As I said, I went from less than optimal to nearly optimal and it sounded very good before and it sounds even better now.

With regard to what you should purchase are you looking for in/onwall mountable main/center channel or will bookshelf/floorstanders be the choice?

For your budget I would look to M22 and it's variations/VP100 and QS8's for surrounds and to bring out the low end for HT an EP350 subwoofer.

If you can wait 3-4 weeks I would highly suggest looking at the Factory Outlet to save 10% and if you order 5 or more items you get an extra 5% off as well.

The surrounds work best 2-3ft above your ears or higher Lynn, they don't have to be at ear level. Many of us have them wall or ceiling mounted. Mine are about 7ft of the floor.

I am planning on mounting them on the wall, so I was looking at the M2 for left and right channel, VP100 center and QS4's for the surrounds. I was considering the EP175 for the sub.

7.1 system - my suggestions.

Mains - M2 or M22 if you can afford them, better midrange then the M2 or so I am told.

Center VP100 - a very good if not forgotten center.

Side Surrounds L/R - QS4s or better still QS8s, a slightly better match for the M2/M22 as they use the same drivers but the 4s are excellent as well.

Rear channels if you are close to them, say less than 5-6', then QS4/QS8s depending on what you chose for side surrounds and if the distance is longer, another set of M2s/M22s as the sound will have time/distance to disperse and envelop you properly, yet will still hit you and let you know it is behind you.

How far is the couch going to be from the back wall? Maybe 7.1 is not the way to go, maybe stick with 5.1 and upgrade the actual speakers a little bit.

Here is a pic of my seating area the couch is about 16" away from the back wall and the QS8's are about 2' above my seated listening height. Hope this helps with your plans.