Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Moving to 6.1 or 7.1... what to use for rears

I have an Axiom HT setup (M3Ti's, QS8's, VP150) and am very happy with it. I am debating going to 6.1/7.1 and some alternatives would be:

o put a VP100 in back for a single rear center.
o put a pair of Mzero's in back.

I realize these have different tweeters than my current speakers. However, they should be close and the rears should do pretty light duty. Any comments on which is preferable (extra amp channels are plentiful at my house right now ;-) I am leary of moving up the axiom line due to size constraints.

acg.

Does the back centre get the same "sort" of info as the front centre or is it more like the surrounds?

I think I would go with another QS8, but lets see what people with such systems suggest.

It's more of another surround.

I have watched the Gladiator in 6.1, and they used a center channel in the back. I found it to be too directional and hollow. I would use another QS as the center surround, and put the other surrounds on the sides, as usual.

The one difficulty is the rear of my room has a bookshelf about 5 feet behind the couch and an open area above. I was hoping to place the rears on the bookshelf (either on top with a vp100 or in the shelves with the zeros).

I really do like the QS8's... they just will not work on the shelf. I could make some sort of hanging apparatus though (I like DIY projects).

acg.

QSx speakers can sit on shelves.
Put some little rubber feet on the bottom to raise them up a half inch or so and the bottom woofer will have some 'breathing' room so to speak.
There are still 3 other sound sources from the QSx speaker that will be used regardless of the placement of the surround on a shelf. The sound is still very diffuse.
(chek out my setup pics for a view of 2 QS8s on shelves. )

Thx chesseroo... how do you find vibration with this approach? Have you ever A/B'd with a more elevated QS8?

The more I think about it, the third QS8 is the way to go (they work incredibly well). I am going to play around with a suspended mount and see how it works (it should only cost me some MDF, some oak strips, and some time). If it works well, I will post a pic.

acg.

I have 6.1 with 3 QS8's for my surrounds. The rest of my setup is like this... M60's, VP150, and the EP175. Gladiator never sounded better than in 6.1 today. Keep in mind, I watched it yesterday in 5.1. Now I just have to figure out how to wire the 3rd QS8 permanently.

Sound is a very funny thing, everybody has a different ideas about what to do, in the end it is really what sounds good to you. I personally tried the QS8 in back and did not like the effect it had on my setup. (my system, VP150 Center, M80 mains, QS8 surrounds, 2 VP150’s for rear channels, 2 EP175 and 1 EP350) I also ordered 2 VP 150’s to try as rears as my feeling was that the timbre matching would be consistent with the center channel. After playing around with the setup I found in the end that the VP 150’s in the back gave me the overall sound staging that suited my application best. There are really no rules here to guide you, sometimes it takes some experimentation to figure out what works for you. In my case I preferred the more directional sound of the VP150 for a rear effect then the dispersal the QS8 produced.

Yet another possibility before you make a mount: experiment with the QS8 on top of the shelf, but lying on its back facing the ceiling.

JohnK

that's a very interesting idea! you could also try it sideways on it's back so one tweeter is facing the front, one facing the back, or with the tweeters facing the sides... the possibilities are endless!

The one thing that you do want to keep in mind is that while the QS8 does emanate sound spatially, high frequencies are far more directional then low frequencies by lying the speaker down with only the lower driver pointing out into the room you are going to change the dynamics of the sound dispersion from that speaker. You will have to experiment but as I found out the results were not what I was expecting. In your situation I think that you would get better results by using a VP100 or VP150 as your rear channel.

I've had no vibrations from the QS8s while sitting on shelves. The sound dispersion is excellent regardless of their placement but changing placement definitely improves the surround quality in certain locations (some of which i simply cannot mount the speakers...yet). This includes elevated heights and for my preference, about a half foot behind my listening position.
I would probably modify that thought once i get a 6th channel surround for the rear.

That is interesting to note.

I think before i decide on adding a 6th channel i will take my present vp150 and move it to the rear as a test.

Yes, in addition to possibly experimenting with various QS8 arrangements in back, the VP150 could be disconnected( use the mains in "phantom" mode for the center channel)and used for the back speaker to see if the more direct sound was more to your taste, as it was for John Henderson.