Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater 4 QS4's for sides and rear surrounds with M80's...

Hey folks,

Question, just finishing off my HT room in the basement. The room is 34 x 14, with 8' ceilings. I have M80's and a VP150, can I get away with using 4 QS4's for the side and rear surrounds?

I know the QS8's are the superior speaker, but do not want to fork out over $1200 cdn at the moment. WOndering if 4 QS4's will do the job for me. I'm using an HK325 to power the surrounds, not a monster amp (so the higher wattage of the QS8's doesn't really matter to me). Plus I see that the sensitivity of the QS4's is only 1 db lower than the QS8's, so i'm hoping they play at a similar loudness level.

Any thoughts?

That's quite the room amer.
Have any pictures to post?

I think it could come down to how loud you plan on playing the speakers and how large the room is. Since we know the room dimensions, i think it is safe to say it is considered 'large' for most purposes. Along those lines the QS8s would probably be the preference. However given the FO price of QS8s at $558 Cdn apiece, x4 units, puts you over $2200!!
Certainly you would save a bit of cash picking up 4 QS4s instead at just under $1500 for 4 FO units. I'm sure 4 of any of those surrounds will create a loud and immerssive sound field.
So really i guess my reply has not been particularly helpful.

Go QS8s!!

Its being painted and carpeted this weekend, when its all done and everything is set-up, i'll post some pics and have amie update the pics on the wall-o-fame.

Is the factory outlet price per speaker or per pair of speakers? If it's per speaker.....ouch.

At this point I think I am leaning to the 4 QS4's, thinking that they should be able to play it loud enough for me. I am kind of hoping that the diffence between the QS4's and QS8's is kinda like the M60's vs the M80's...ie...sound bascially the same, one just plays louder. I know with the larger drivers on the QS8's, this may or may not be the case.

amer, I ilke to work with names, so I took a lok at your profile. I notice that you have M50s as surrounds right now. Is there something wrong with having them in the mix at the back of that rather impressively large room? Can you keep them and supplement with the QS8s?

I'm thinking, again based on filling that auditorium with audio, that the QS8s are the right way to go. If you don't want to go with all of them at once, is there a possibility of picking them off a set at a time and keeping the M50s in the rotation until you are done. I'm not a techie kind of guy, but my addled logic tells me the QS4s might need to sweat a bit to fill that large void.

Will you be able to stand in the middle of the room and actually see all of the speakers? I'm really hoping that you have a rear projector hitting a drive-in sized screen and theater seating for 120 people. That room is big enough to have time zones and seasons. As chess said - you must show some pictures.

Ray, I unloaded the M50's to a friend (a new axiom convert), as I wanted to go all wall mounts for the surrounds. The M50's were actually a leftover from axiom upgradeitous, as they were my first axiom speaker (along with VP100, M2's - now belonging to another happy axiom owner), liked them so much, got the M80's and VP150.

I looked into doing a rear projector set-up, but that got whacked by my better half and the laws of ecomonics. So for now, the 61" toshiba HDTV will have to do. However, I have done all the wiring for a future ceiling mount front projector set-up. Hopefully with these high oil prices, I can swing for a front projector with my bonus next year (guess where this years bonus went....lol).

I suspect you guys are right, and I just should swing for the QS8's, otherwise I will going down the upgrade path yet again.

Cheers.

I'm back. I'm not sure where you guys are coming up with the pricing, and I hope I am right, but 4 QS8s (2 pair) would end up being FO priced at $558 CDN x 2 PAIRS - $1116, not $2200.

Also, if amer was to order another piece of anything (wire?) to get to the 5 piece minimum, he gets another 5% off. If the 30 day return policy is waived (and in this case it seems like the thing to do), another 5% discount applies. The $1116 now becomes $1004 + whatever the 5th thing ordered costs.

Two pairs of new QS8s go from $1240 CND to (5% for 5-piece and 5% for waiver) to $1116.

I may have the numbers a bit wacko (gotta run - dinner time) but I think the earlier discssion from chess was calc'd at twice what it should have been for the QS8s. If I'm wrong, I apologize.

Sorry amer.
Divide those costs by two.
Incidentally the QS4 is now being made with the same tweeter as the QS8.
I'm sure from both a marketing and a cost of building perspective this is a wise decision for Axiom. They may still be selling the QS4s with the other tweeter until they get rid of the stock so if you go that route, you may want to ask (if it makes a difference to you).

amer brings up an interesting conundrum, chess. How shall we rename "Upgrade-itis"?

Good to know that the QS4's have the new tweeter, I'll ask axiom if the factory outlet price is for the new QS4's or for old stock.

Also, how do you get the 5% discount for waiving the 30 return policy? Does it come up in the ordering process?

Oh Peter! Don't get him started again.