Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater QS8s at ear level for surround only in ATMOS setup

But that exact point was why the QS8's worked so well for 5.1 and 7.1. We don't have a perfect room so the sound that you get from one speaker on one side of the room doesn't mean the other side will produce the same. Think of people with L shaped room, or rooms where the HT is stuck to one side so they effectively only have 3 walls or even 2.

The current Dolby/DTS mode is you have your 5 channels where there is a definate Left, Right, Center and then the around abouts called surrounds. It works in odd rooms as the surrounds are your pretty much large field effects that don't have to have pinpoint accuracy. As soon as you make it required, then you are going to have to spend far more time on making the room perfect in order for the perfect sound to stay that way.

Agreed. The QS speakers are WONDERFUL for 5.1 and 7.1 configurations, rooms with unusual issues or placement limitations, etc.

A bit long-winded, but I'll get to why I posted in this thread.

While visiting my sister in Lynnwood, we stopped in at a home theater store since we noticed the sign, and we were waiting for my nephew as he went to an eye appointment. We told the salesman there we weren't really in the market, but rather just killing time as we waited for someone. There wasn't anyone else around, though, so he took time to just shoot the breeze and ultimately give a brief demonstration some of their wares. Almost at the beginning, he asked what kind of system I had at home, and I mentioned my Axiom speakers. He knew the name, but he didn't really have anything to say, but a minute later he was talking about an amp they had hooked up, and it was a Bryston. I said, "Oh, Axiom worked with Bryston on their speakers." He pointed at a pair of speakers toward the front of the demo room. Oh, yeah, a pair of Bryston speakers.

We had to leave before I could get him to fire them up, but he did show off the first battle scene in Master & Commander with the M&K speakers that were hooked up behind the acoustically transparent (Seymour) screen, and he was also showing off the Epson laser projector. Unfortunately, they weren't set up particularly well. The system wasn't strained at all, even at the demo volume, but it still sounded muddled. The image quality fared no better. It didn't seem to be calibrated well, with the contrast being pumped too high without the picture being as vibrant as I'd hoped for a laser projector. I was polite and said the demo was a lot of fun, but I came away with an even higher appreciation for my own setup. Not that I think mine is set up perfectly, but it's still nice to know mine can compare favorably to what a store uses to show off.

As far as brands, besides Bryston, I saw Wharfedale, Triangle, and M&K for loudspeakers. I can't remember what the subwoofers were at the front of the room, but he had a giant SVS sub at the back of the room which he admitted he hadn't yet integrated well into the system. Bryston amps, Emotiva amps, tube amps he said a friend makes (100 watts/channel). Audioquest cables, which he was almost apologetic for carrying, and he called them the Monster Cable of the high-end. I was surprised to see both SVS and Emotiva. He didn't say anything about actually carrying the SVS, but he said he was trying to be the first, or one of the first, brick & mortar stores carrying Emotiva.

In any case, the reason I was posting here is because of his talk of the M&K speakers he had hooked up for the demo. He made the point several times that M&K speakers were used when creating different audio standards, and they were used to mix the Star Wars movies. He made special mention of the tripole surrounds. They not only shoot out at an angle like the QSes, but they shoot directly out as well, which he thought would be great for Atmos. Still fills in the gaps, but then also has a sense of that more precise placement. I don't think he had an Atmos processor actually set up yet, but it would have been nice to put that to the test. I'd be interested in seeing them directly compared to the QS8s in an Atmos setup.

I enjoyed spending some time talking to someone who just loves the hobby, even if the demo didn't really wow me. It was nice that he took all of that time despite no prospect of a sale.

Cool story.

Interesting. I wonder just how those tripoles with one woofer pointING straight out would do. Almost seems like the best of both worlds, but at the same time I don't know how much value I put into a sales guy at store that doesn't seem to properly set up even their own equipment that they sell. Still, it would possibly be slightly closer to what Dolby wants. Then again, anything that it "filling gaps" in a sound field wouldn't seem to be precise enough to create a pinpoint Atmos object. Who knows... sounds like a fun time killer that you had though.

My brain if playing tricks on me. I remember reading a passage about the Dolby response to QS8 vs direct radiating speakers. Something to the point that DiPole/OmniPole speakers were designed to simulate an array of surrounds like were used in theaters, and all the new Atmos theaters all have individual direct radiating speakers now.

This has me thinking. Array of surrounds, is saying that there were far more than one for each side. A new Atmos theater will then likely have far more than 7 + 4 speakers in their mix. So for example where in your home you have 1 surround left speaker at home, the theater has 5-8? depending on the size of the room. That will give the Atmos the ability to radiate the pinpoint sound over multiple times more speakers than you will ever have. At best you have 3 speakers if you send some of that sound mixed through your front left and rear left surround speakers.

Effectively all that Atmos has done is give far more channels bumping from the 4 (pro-logic), 5 (DD), 7 (DD-HD) now to as many as you have.

But for the home user that can't put in 20+ speakers like they have in an actual theater, are you going similar sound from the 5 speakers or 7 speakers that are directional, like you would with the 20+

Ulimately my QS8's will be taken down and replaced with direct firing. I think right now given I have a second row and only 5.2.4 they are fine, but once I go 7.2.4 I want all my surrounds to be direct firing. Probably M3 on walls given my size room. But I have only heard M2 on walls.

If you only have one row of seating and want atmos. Go direct firing speakers. Forget everything else. Those days are over....assuming of course Atmos and DTS's version take off.

Yup.

Oh, as for M3s, I have the on wall version that went in place of my QS8. The M3 sounds really nice.

Looks like a perfect time to build a new QS speaker . Same design as a qs8 but add a woofer on the front. We can name it the qs10 .

I was watching a movie in my new room and was getting rather ticked off with the rest of the family as I could hear them just chatting away and it was rather distracting during the scene.

So I hit pause and yelled up to them "do you mind I'm watching the movie". The chatting had stopped, so I resumed to movie, only to have the chatting back again.

OK. Pause, and furious go upstairs, to find out they had left to go shopping and were not inside the house at all.

Then it dawned on me that the chatter stopped when I hit pause. Sat down and pressed play again to figure out it was the sound mix from the QS8s on my wall surrounds that just sounded too realistic to be part of the movie.

YEP. Tatoo that big letter i onto my forehead.