Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners M60s versus QS8s for rear surrounds

How about a few more comments, both pro and con, on using M60s instead of QS8 for the rear surround speakers.

What say the tribe?

If you mean in a 7.1 system and using the QS-8's as side surrounds, then I'd have to say ohh yeah!! Because I've been thinking about that myself.

But in a 5.1 I think you might lose something (during movies) NOT having a 'true' surround like the QS-8.

JMHO but hearing from the experts on this would be interesting.

Rat, i posted my thoughts on something similar quite some time ago. Years to be exact. (Hard to find posts now i imagine).

It would be a 5.1 system, at least for the next couple of years.

chess: a very interesting test. I'm going to take a hard look at the M22 versus the Qs8's specs.

That depth charge sound on U 571 is something else, isn't it. As I mentioned, the wife and I watched it again last Friday. What a difference with true Dolby 5.1, the M80s, and the VP-150.

Anyone else have comments and/or comparisons?

If you've not heard the Qs8's yet, I would reserve judgement until you do.
You will get lots of differing opinions about direct as opposed to difuse surround speakers, and I fall into the difuse camp.
The Qs8's are fantastic surround speakers. There are some on this board that have even offered the opinion that they are, pound for pound, the best speaker that Axiom makes.
Mine made more of a difference in my enjoyment of my system for movies than even my 60's.

I run M22's for surround and love them for this job. (Listen about 50-50 music-movies) I compared them with the QS4's and just found I liked the effect that the direct speaker gave me. Although I must say that when I move to a different house I will most likely try a pair of QS8's as surround due to the overwhelming amount of praise for these little speakers.

I think that my room size and setup had a lot to do with my prefering the 22's for surround. If I had the cash I would love to try 60's in the back as I loved the extra performance of the 60's as mains in my system compared with the 22's that I first ran.

I'm with you Seabear on this one. The Qs8's are probably my favorite speaker of the bunch. They do what they are supposed to do, surround you, as opposed to a direct radiating speaker. If you think about the movie theaters, especially the ones that are THX certified, the side/rear walls are lined with direct radiating speakers. The Quadpolar design replicates this environment as it was intended for home theater.

I think one question you should ask yourself is what do the owners themselves have? Amie/Ian have QS8s for surrounds and since they are the owners cost is not a problem. If they wanted, it wouldnt be a problem for them get 7 M80s but they don't. Im sure Alan can also provide a much better explanation on which way to go.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't using a direct radiating speaker make the sweet spot much smaller than a quadpolar surrounds?

I would go with M60s (or 22s, 2s, whatever) for a pure 5.1 music system but QS8s for a dual-use or HT system. The QS8s are very good at making your room seem much larger than it really is, which is a real plus for HT.