Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners QS8

How high do you install the surround speakers for the best sound.I guess I could see how tall the stands are, but I thought I would get some advice first.

Shawn

Shawn: You will get lots of valid, yet differing opinions here. Most people seem to have wall mounted theirs. Because I have floor-ceiling windows, I had no choice but stands. They look cool enough, but, far more importantly, they are enormously placement-forgiving because their dispersion is so good.

I'm very pleased having them on stands. They also make it a hell of a lot easier to move the speakers around the room while searching out their optimal placement.

Good luck.

Actually, higher than the stands is recommended. Usually a few feet above the ear when seated in the listening position.

I placed mine halfway between ear level and the ceiling. That seems to work pretty well. But then again, the Axiom's QSes are very forgiving in regards to placement.

I may end up placing mine close to the ceiling (7 foot ceilings), to help keep them from becoming head bonkers in forced walking paths. But I intend to experiment with many different placements before finding a final resting place for them. I always wondered how they would sound mounted to the ceiling, where the wall side is mounted on the ceiling. Mounting them to the upper left and upper right of the screen might make good height channel speakers.

They only stick out about 6 inches from the wall. I think you'll find it hard to walk so close that you'd hit your head.

The sides of 3 across chairs is only going to leave about 2 to 2.5 feet on either side for walking space, and the QS8's will probably be mounted just slightly behind the backs of the chairs.

You know your room (and head) best. It shouldn't matter as long as there is a few inches of clearance from the top driver to the ceiling.

Shawn, Alan Loft via Axiom Audio has some excellent articles with diagrams on system setup, here's just one of the many available ... The Essential Guide To Home Theater Layout

If I understand you correctly, I wouldn't advise this. The included T-bracket is not designed to support the weight of the speaker in that direction. Big difference between pull-out strength and shear strength.

I have tall ceilings. The bottoms of my QS8's are about 75" from the floor, so a little less than 3' above the listener. Sounds good to me.

Agreed if mounted using the t-bracket, but it would require a different approach. I'm just curious as to how it would affect the sound, but in reality I may never get a chance to try it.

As the others have hinted, the Q's are very forgiving. Axiom recommends for best results to have them about 2-3ft above ear level when seated, for best results. I think mine are about 7ft off the floor and work great. Mine are level, and not angled downward and still sound fantastic.

Part of the design of these speakers was based on simulating multiple direct radiating speakers that are lined along the walls of theaters, all in one package.

Yes,thanks everyone. I just got my receiver today and it said 2ft above your head also.I can hardly wait to get it all set up,whoohoo!

Shawn

Shawn,

As Sir Quack emphasized, you'll really have great flexibility in QS8 placment. To show you, my right-side QS8 is 7 feet above the floor and the left-side surround is 5 feet up. They are not exactly opposite each other, which isn't required.

You could use a pair of stepladders to support the QS8s temporarily if you want to experiment.

Regards,
Alan

At first glance I read that as 'spladders'.

Or sheep's bladders, which I have heard may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

If you're Scottish, you could employ a couple of step-laddies to help your QS8 placement.

You could hang the QS8s on their sporrans (temporarily). .

Alan

That'd be to close to ma bagpipe, laddie!

Shawn,

My Q's are mounted 36" above ear level. Do not forget to experiment with how far behind you to mount them. I run a 5.1 system, so mounting the Q's approx. 1 ft. behind me on the side walls resulted in excellent performance.

Alan, my left surround is 8" from the ceiling that is 8' high (I'm using the T-mounts that come with the QS8s). I have no choice but to hang the RS from the ceiling. If I'm using the axiom ceiling mount, how do I go about balancing (evening out) the sound?

I'm also looking for something I can use to hang it a little lower than the axiom ceiling mount will allowed... any suggestions?

Evening out the sound is done via the receiver and it's speaker level trims. The Denon will read that speaker as being a different distance from the listening position when you run Audyssey and the receiver will then assign the correct level of trim. You are also not loking for proper stereo imaging etc. making placement of the surrounds not as critical.