Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater 7.1 surround (just talking channels 6 and 7 here)

Similar to the QS8 vs. the M3 question...but as my subject line states...it's just for channels 6 and 7. Which would be my back surrounds for DD-EX and DTS...and I suppose for music as well...but I'm a HT guy (let me insert here that my side surrounds - channels 4 and 5 will be QS8s). So here it is. I'm really looking for feedback from people who are running 7.1. I'd especially like to hear if anyone is running an M2 or M3 or M22 for their back surrounds. Have at it guys! And of course the question is...which will work and sound better? One more bit of info. The speakers will be placed apx. 6-7 feet behind the couch and about 8-9 feet up (using brackets to angle them downwards). My room is 15 ft. tall and this was the best place I could place them. So this is what I have to work with. And thanks as usual!

Great question. I'm rally interested in the answer here, too. There has been some chatter that if you're going to place both a 6th and 7th channel in the rear, then the M2s are the way to go, because there will be some directionality, but the sound field will be spread out due to the distance between the #s 6 & 7, firing simultaneously in mono.

I think that they also may even out your listening room if you do decide to get into 8 channel audio, thus eliminating a front and back of the soundstage. (You'll have direct firing speakers in front and rear, and diffuse, dipoles in the middle).

BTW - your room sounds awesome for HT. Wish I was lucky and had a great big room with lots of extra space on back walls for this.

Misfit,

I am currently in the inverse situation as you are describing. I have M60's up front, VP150 for a center and a set of M22's as rears, all in a 5.1 setup. I have only had my Axioms for a bit over two weeks and they blow my previous HTIB speakers out of the water and off the planet. I live in a rent house and did not want to have to hang the QS8's on the walls and then have to fix the holes before moving out. I "plan" on (when we move into our "own" home") to replace my receiver with a 7.1 capable one and adding a set of QS8's in the locations you are describing.

Now, what I can comment on is using the M22's as surrounds. Yes, there is a bit of directionality (is that a word?) but they still throw a very large soundstage (albeit not as "immersive" as the QS8's should), toed in of course... Once I thought that some small creature was behind my chair during the "Journey through the Marshes" scene on LOTR: TT...not to mention the marsh bubbling, rustling noises, etc...

I went with the M22's to try to match the M60's timbre although I have not heard the M2's. BTW, I have the M22's on 28" stands near the rear corners of the room...not the best location but the best afforded by the room.

Just my .02,

WhatFurrer

I'm kind of thinking I'm might enjoy a little "directionality". But who knows without trying it I guess. That's why I'd really like to hear feedback from those who have it set up this way.

You bring up a good point, Misfit - why are we so worride about directionality in our surrounds?

MY current 5.1 setup (which sucks) has regular, directional, front-firing speakers. I actually kind of like it when the surroudn mix is a little aggressive, and you can hear where the sound is coming from. Now, saying that, I imagine that with quad-polar surrounds, you'll still get "some" directionality, but I wouldn't know. I guess the theory is that the QSs better simulate the multiple side-speakers in a theater. But to be honest, one of teh things that I prefer about home theaters (those of my own and my friends, who have better systems than I) is that the surroudn sound is slightly more localized, and, as such, has more impact.

I can see how certain situations may call for different solutions, though, too. For instance, Axiom Alan is constantly refering to the Bourne Identity when he talks abotu great surround. I think that he does so because the surround in that movie isn't tremendously aggressive, and where it is, the surround use is very atmospheric (e.g. rain, the city streets).

I dont' even think that I have .02 above, but maybe some more experienced Home Theater experts coudl shed some light on why quadpolar is as good as it is touted to be, and whether the localization is a bad thing...

No one's using M2s or M3s for the rear surrounds? Well...I might do it anyway. Someone's got to cross that line sometime and fill everyone in

Spiffnme's got M2s for his rear surrounds (or at least he did). He wasn't, as I recall, overly impressed with the 7.1 experience.

Strong vote for M2's as rears. My understanding is that the rear channel info is meant to be for direct radiators. In addition, 5.1 channel music on SACD and DVD-A sounds much better when the surround channels come from direct radiating speakers located behind the listening position. I've tried it both ways, and surrounds to the rear from direct speakers won by a mile. One caveat...make sure your receiver or pre/pro has a full set of 7.1 inputs so you can plug the surround channels from your DVD-A/SACD player into the rear channels of your receiver, or that there is some other way of making sure that the surround channels can be sent to the rear speakers in the multichannel input mode.

Mark

Misfit_Toy,

I'm using three QS8's in a 6.1 configuration, hanging from a 9' ceiling (see my picture here). My side QS8's are 14' apart from each other, so I have found that a single QS8 in between them fills the void very well. If my side speakers were farther apart (say 18' or more) then an additional QS8 in the rear would be probably be better.

The drivers in the QS4/8 are in-phase. For this reason, their overall sound is closer to a direct-radiating speaker than a dipole. I have found these speakers to perform very well with DVD-A and SACD. Yet they have enough dispersion (through the down and up firing midrange drivers) to offer some dispersion for movie soundtracks. The best of both worlds, IMO.

Jason

Okay...I think because I'm going with two speakers in the rear that I would do well with directional speakers. My QS8s on the side I'm sure will do a fine job of filling in all the information and this will open up the door for better DVD-A and SACD performance. So...what's it gonna be then? M2, M3 or M22? I guess I'm leaning towards the M2...but what's everyone else think?

I'll echo Marks comments and also suggest the M2s.

what about going with m3 as side surrounds and m2 as rear surrounds?

Well...two reasons why I won't. First...my QS8s are already on order Second, my room is pretty big and I do want some (extensive) sound dispersion. I thought a pair of QS8s and a pair of M2s would be a good mix of surrounding and directional. Thanks everyone for your help. It'll be a few months before everything is together. But expect two things. Feedback and pictures!

Jason - great set-up. How do the Qs sound so close to the ceiling? Where's you get the hanging brackets? Did you order those in the eggshell or color/paint them yourself? Sorry to go off-topic - just curious.

I am also thinking about the M2s for the rear surround because of some concerns that 6.1/7.1 sound just aint that much better (mayeb) and because of the limited availability of titles out there carrying discrete 6.1. I was planning on hooking up the 7.1 with the M2s - and if it really didn't wow me, then move the M2s into my second room. The M2s will sound better as a back-up in a second room than the Qs will.

cool brackets jason, where did you get them and how much are they?

i'm interested in brackets (cieling mounted also) for my qs8's

Aren't they nice looking? I believe Jason got them here

You'll notice they come in two colors. Also, note that on the left side of the page they offer a wall mount as well. The QS8's are 11 lbs., but Jason checked with the manufacturer who said the 10 lb. rating for the mount is purposely a conservative one. Jason reported he's had no problems whatsoever with the mounts holding the QS8s.

Capn_Pickard, Johnny_Be_Good,

Jack got it right, that's where I got them (racksandstands.com). I read a message in this forum from Ian Colquhoun stating that the QS8's weigh 10.6 pounds each, so the 10 pound rating of the bracket isn't a problem (plus as Jack stated, the manufacturer told me they'll hold a few pounds more in reality). The 20 pound rated brackets they make don't have the right size thread to go into the back of the QS8 so that's why I went with the 10 pound rated brackets.

I got the QS8's in eggshell white for $95 extra (WAF). As you can tell I've got them angled down slightly so the tweeters are more on-axis with the listening area. This angling also points the top woofer at an angle to the ceiling, but there is still a significant dispersion effect off the ceiling. There's about 3 - 4 inches of clearance between the top of the speaker and the ceiling. As others have stated, the QS4/8's are very forgiving about their placement.

Although I've just got a single rear speaker, since the QS8 has 4 drivers pointed off-angle from each other, it fills the back space very well acoustically. It doesn't sound like there's just one speaker behind you, it blends with the 2 side speakers to create a soundstage with no holes. Of course it's essential to balance all the speakers with an SPL meter. I've got the center QS8 adjusted 1dB less than the sides because it's a few feet closer to the main listening spot than the side speakers.

Jason