Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners QS10 Placement

Looking for a little help here. I currently have a 7.2 setup (front heights). My current side surrounds are a bi-polar speaker.

I'm looking at ordering a pair of the QS10, as the quad-polar setup intrigues me. Assuming that I use them on the side (replacing the bi-poles), how high should I mount them? I believe the current bi-poles (middle of the drivers) are about 1 ft above my seated (at MLP) head height.

Also, I have long been considering adding speakers on the back wall (pre-wired) for a 9.2. Back wall is only 2 - 3 ft behind MLP, and there is an opening to a stairwell on one side. Would a 2nd set of QS10's on the back wall make sense? Or use QS10's on the back wall and something like an M3 on-wall on the sides instead? (Note, I doubt I will ever get the chance to go Atmos as drilling holes in my ceiling is not really in the cards)

I'm trying to sell my current speakers so that I can go with 100's in the front, with a 160 or 180 centre. Don't know what I would use for front heights. Thought about an M3 on-wall with the full metal bracket mounting so that I could swivel/tilt them toward MLP.

Hi EastCoast,

I have a 4,200 ft^3 room with two side and two rear QS8s. I sit about 13 feet away from the sides and 11 feet away from each rear. The rears are about 9 feet apart. The bottom of each QS8 is 2 feet above my head. My sides are about 4 feet ahead of me. I sit 14 feet away from my M80v2 and 160v4.

I used to have a Denon circa 2002. I was not getting much out of the QS8s under calibrated settings. When I bumped up the surround gain, it didn't sound right. This was also the time when I had my room arranged differently and the side QS8s were slightly behind me.

Fast forward to 2013 when I bought my Onkyo. With the combination of XT32 and better decoding, the side QS8s came alive.

Then in late 2016, I re-arranged my room to the layout I described initially. Wow! I now have what I consider to be fantastic sound for movies and PLII music. I have a very wide soundstage with very focused instrument and vocal placement. The recent upgrade from my 600v2 to the EP800v4 has brought my system over the top with deep, clean, tight bass.

My side QS8s, with their forward placement, contribute greatly to the wide soundstage I am hearing. As for my rears, they are definitely filling in the space but I would not miss them if they weren't there. Some have said I should get dipoles for the rears but I am worried that they might sound unnatural.

The only thing I feel my QS8s are lacking is bass response. The QS10s I am sure would fix that right up and I am planning on upgrading the sides. I hope this has given you some food for thought.

Thanks, Mojo.

My MLP would be about 10 ft. from either side wall. I think I'm about 14 ft from the TV/front soundstage, and about 3 ft from the back wall as noted.

My MLP is basically "centred" on the current bi-pole speaker position; this was done purposely. I cannot actually change the position of these speakers - on my right there is a window, and the right side speaker is basically right up against the window frame; on the left, the side wall ends to make way for the stairwell leading to the main floor. So I can't move the speakers either forward or back, and measurements suggest there is just enough space to accomodate the QS10's. I could possibly push my MLP back a little, but not sure whether this would provide any significant benefit.

I run a Yamaha Aventage 3040 receiver; currently listing on Kijiji to see if I might be able to sell it; if I do, will likely upgrade to either a 3060 or 3070 model.

I'm thinking maybe putting speakers on the rear wall won't give me much benefit, given the relative proximity of my MLP and their relative placement to the side surrounds. I have also considered putting M-3s on the back wall, but can't angle them to MLP without using the Full Metal Bracket - but then this might stick out from the wall further than I would like.

Mostly I was curious how high the QS10's should be, given the driver on the bottom; sounds like I might need to have them a little higher than my current surrounds.

I think the horizontal placement of your sides will be great for movies. As for music in simulated surround, my experience has been that it might sound like instruments and voices are coming from the sides. Maybe there are ways in your Yammy to correct this. As for the rears, do you have any speakers kicking around you can mock up as rears for experimentation?

As for vertical placement, the recommendation is one to three feet above the head.

Many people also place their Qs closer to the ceiling, with great success. Troll the picture threads a bit many around 6 inches to a foot from ceilings. They are very forgiving.

I've had the QS10 since release though mine are around 1.5 or 2 foot above my MLP. They blend so well I find my self going to them just to make sure they're still connected, to which they always are .{M80v.4 are my mains} Then bam action scene your in the middle of their magic.

The tops of mine are 9 inches from the ceiling.

If you are going to have rear surround and side surround then its better to have them a bit forward as mojo says . I have 5.1 so i keep mine slightly behind my head but high up near the ceiling. I have had them a varying positions over the years and i find this works best for me. The QS speakers are forgiving , but there is nothing worse than being able to pinpoint a speaker.Givin the size of your room this should not be an issue.

The diffuse effect from my QS8s is really very good. I've often wondered though if a slightly more direct effect would sound better by perhaps angling the top and bottom drivers at 45 degrees. They might sound better for larger distances from the MLP but the effect may be too direct at shorter distances.

You need the 4 QS10's

They're worth a try. The 160v4 and the 800v4 did wonders so why not the QS10s, eh?

Well i really would like to try the QS10's but i fear i will keep them same as i did with all my other so called test drives. I only got my QS8's a year ago so we will see.

It's definitely a wad of cash even with the trade-in. I've been debating about waiting for the QS12HP. Serenity_now suggested re-purposing my M80s to sides when I upgrade my fronts. So many options...so few bucks. Hmmm...I could always re-introduce my Bose 601s as surrounds. They are serving that job quite nicely at my buddy's.

yeah they are expensive and i cant trade mine in.

Why can't you trade them in?

Thanks everyone for the responses so far. The QS10's are definitely pricey, but there are a couple pairs in the B-Stock, which is what I have my eye on.

If/when I get the QS10's, I could possibly rig up my current bi-poles on the back wall to see if I like the general effect. But I don't have any direct radiators kicking around that I could use there.

Just a quick drive-by note here, but if you plan to implement Atmos, you will want whatever speakers that are doing side (and rear if installed) surround duty to be just above head level. You want them to be able to shoot sound, unobstructed, over anyone's head that is sitting next to you, but not higher on the wall so that you have as much distance of separation between the surrounds and the overheads.

If you never plan to go to an Atmos setup, then as mentioned, about 1-2 feet above is a good general guideline.

Then again, if you do go Atmos, then the QS10s are too dispersed for an "ideal" setup.

As for your front heights, I have on-wall M3s that I've mounted to my ceiling for Atmos. I use Axiom's Full Metal Bracket for each, and it gives my a lot of angle options.

Nick, I am not very familiar with Atmos. Does Atmos have the equivalent of simulated surround for 2-channel (a la PLII)? If so, how does it sound with the recommended speakers and placement?

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/brands/dolby-atmos.html

Atmos can take 2 channel and upmix it to the speakers that you have. Some have stated that the Dolby Surround (Atmos upmixer) is the best that they have ever heard.

Denon just announced a new receiver today (for a mere $4000 I believe) that can output to 13 speakers plus subwoofers.

Why stop at 13? It's about time for a modular and scalable processor that permits expansion to a plethora of outputs.

They were vinyl and i put wood veneer on them.

That just makes them more valuable!

I didnt do my best work on them despite my efforts, just one of those things.I also didnt do the backs of them.For some reason the wood just wouldnt darken like the rest of my speakers and i got too much water in my water seperator and it got into the clear. i fixed that but it just was a sour job

May I suggest you bust them open and angle the 5.25" drivers at 45 degrees to answer my long-standing question?