Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Is off-axis placement of surrounds a problem?

There will be two locations within my room's seating area that are positioned on the centerline of the television (and subsequesntly will have good alignment with the L/R/C speakers. However, the rest of the seating (3 to 4 other seats) will be off-axis to the left side.

I will be ceiling-mounting the surround speakers, but have some choice as to placement:

1. I can mount the surrounds equidistant from the TV centerline, giving those 2 "sweet" seats a very symmetrical soundstage (i.e. left and right surrounds will be equidistant from the left and right ears of listeners about 10 feet separation). In doing so, any seats out of these 2 locations will be to the left of the left surround speaker.

2. I can mount the left surround speaker further left along the ceiling (5 feet further, making it a 15 foot separation), moving the surround speaker placement off the centerline defined by the television and L/R/C speakers. This will include more seating within the surround soundstage at the expense of denying the 2 former sweet seats equidistant alignment with the surrounds.

This is one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand words, sorry for my tortured description of what is really a straightforward question...


...WHERE SHOULD I MOUNT THAT LEFT SURROUND?

A followup question, very relevant to Axiom, is whether their QS speakers are far less sensitive to off-axis positioning than a direct-radiating (i.e. 2-way bookshelf) speaker.

Yet another followup question, will certain receivers auto-setup function (I'm thinking Yammies YPAO?) compensate for this speaker placement depending on where I place the test microphone?

Thanks.

the QS series surrounds will allow you much more diversity in their placement. they do a great job of radiating the sound in all directions, but still maintain precision and clarity and stay relative to the rest of the speakers. the direct firing speakers would not be a good choice for your set-up applications.

of the 2 options listed, i would go with option 1. it is best to keep the speakers with equal distances, and if you go with QS4's/QS8's, the sound will still be very good for the left listening side. this is just my opinion.

but, i would really stress for you to go with the QS series no matter what placement you decide to go with!

bigjohn

Echo Bigjohn-
Only way to go is the Q's. Mine are not perfectly even in either direction, and they sound incredible. VERY Forgiving speaker when it comes to placement.
And yes, the Yamaha will compensate when doing the YPAO setup. I have not yet run mine on the 2500, but according to the manual, and what i have gleaned from playing around in the menu, it will compensate for volume, distance from listening position (mic) phase, speaker size, and individual speaker equalization. So you should be golden there.