Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Audyssey DSX and Prologic IIz

For those of you who are using these formats, what speakers are you using for heights and/or wides, with respect to your main system?
Thx

grunt, should be along shortly as I believe he is the only one presently using DSx/IIz. A quick summation is he prefers QS8s for height and M22s for wide.

Thanks for the lead-in Jay.

Yes Jay sums it up correctly.

Despite what Audyssey says about using only direct radiating speakers I greatly prefer the QS8s as height speakers. All the sound coming from them is ambient (none is directional) so the QS speakers are perfect for that role. The QS4s might also work here because there really isn’t anything powerful like explosions coming from the heights. Just sounds like rain, wind, echoes and such.

I also prefer the M22s as wide speakers for the M80s (I imagine it would be the same for the M60s). The wide channels share a lot of audio information with their corresponding main speaker and greatly benefit from being closely timbre matched to the mains (not as much as a center but more than surrounds). I haven’t tried it but it’s likely the M2s would also work as wides for the M80s/M60s saving some $ and space but I’ve been lazy about making my next Axiom order so I don’t have any M2s yet. Though if you like to run your M80s “large” or with a low crossover I would stick with the M22s.

Cheers,
Dean

Thank you so much for the info grunt, just what I was looking for. So if you don't mind sharing your .02, how does DSX/IIz fair in your opinion?
I'm really in upgraditis mode with my vp 180 on it's way(soon) and am considering upgrading to a Denon 4810. I'm just searching for opinions as to whether or not the new formats are worthy of an upgrade.
thx

I like them both especially now that I’ve been using them more and not listening critically for what they are doing.

I can’t say there is any noticeable difference between PLIIz and DSX height to my ears though others may have a differing opinion.

What I’m really liking the most now (wasn’t sure at first) are the wide channels. My room is somewhat narrow (21x13x8-12 vaulted) with my seating about 15 feet back. With just the front three speakers it creates a weak area in the 360 soundstage between the mains and the surrounds. The wide speakers fill this gap nicely with both ambient (street, office, jungle and other sounds) and directional sounds extended out from the mains. Note that the directional sounds don’t necessarly blend between the mains and the surrounds better when using wides because the audio information going to the wides is only coming from the mains. But they do blend the ambient soundstage between the mains and surrounds nicely.

Depending on your room layout and speaker/seating arrangement wides my not be as big a benefit. In my apartment a 20x20x8 room seating about 6-8 feet back I achieved the best 360 soundstage I’ve ever heard using just 5.1. So if you can already spread your mains out relative to your seating then IMO the wides become less beneficial.

Also the heights seem to add more to the ambience the higher the ceiling and the more reflective the room.

A couple drawbacks I’ve noticed to using wides is that in a few video games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion the wide don’t just complement the mains they produce the same sounds at the same level. This makes panning across the front 180 soundstage from side to side sound very uneven with large spikes at the mains + wides and a dip at the center and side. I just turn the wides off and run the heights if I find this happening.

The other drawback is that for well recorded, mostly studio music, using the wides messes up the location and “size” of instruments of vocalists. If you like what PLIIx does to 2.0 then this might not bother you but for well recorded material I stick with “direct.” OTOH for concert CD/DVDs, even well recorded ones the wide speakers open up the soundstage making it feel like your right there in the venue.

Let me know how you speakers and seating are arranged and I’m happy to give you my opinion of what might work best for your situation FWIW.

Cheers,
Dean

Excellent, thanks so much for your take.
I use my system 95 percent for movies, and of those I'd say 80 percent are blu ray. I'm stuck in an apartment for the next year(in transition) so my room is not ideal but manageable. The dimensions are 13x17x9 with the seating at about 15'. My M80's are about 9 feet apart with the VP in between. I have two QS8's on the back wall running surround. I'm thinking that I don't have a whole lot of room to play with wide placement, but the heights would seem to work just fine.

oops, double post