Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Deciding on new Axiom system

Greetings!
I am currently trying to decide on a new HT surround system. I have done some research, and am strongly leaning towards this:

http://www.axiomaudio.com/gallery_disp.h...tle=Epic80V600#

I have a 20 x 20 living room with cedar T&G vaulted 20'+ ceiling. The problem is, there is no rear wall. The back end of the living room opens up to the kitchen and dining room areas. I really want the extra set of QS8's for the 7.1, but really have no way of mounting them to the rear "wall". I could use the Axiom "Full Metal Bracket", and have them peeking into the rear area, but there would be no wall behind them. They would be about 8 feet off the ground in this configuration, with the outer tweeter of one firing down an adjacent hallway, and the outer tweeter of the other firing off a 90 degree wall next to it.
Another option would be to mount them up high across the rear area, above the kitchen, on one of the wooden support beams that run parallel to the rear of the listening area. The beam is about 15' up, about half way to the top of the rear slope of the vaulted ceiling. It is about 8" high, so it would give the QS8 a surface to fire the tweeters off of. The top woofer would fire along a sloping plane up to the top of the vaulted ceiling, but the bottom would just be firing into empty space in the kitchen and dining area. Located on the beam, the rear surrounds would be about 20 feet from the listening position on the couch. I don't think I would need to angle them down, as they are not directional, so I could just use the wall bracket to mount to the beam.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I can't really provide any pix, as the house is being remodeled, and would provide more confusion than help, I am afraid.
I may be able to do a floor plan on a basic drawing program if that would be helpful. I sincerely appreciate any and all advice in advance. Just for additional info, my other gear is:

Samsung 61 inch HL-S 6187 1080p DLP TV
Denon AVR 3806
Toshiba HD XA1 HD DVD player
Dish Vip 622 HD DVR
Sony RDR-HX900 DVD Recorder with 80GB HD
Monster Power HTS 3600 MKII PowerCenter

Again, thanks for the input!
Best,
James W Barron
snowtrooper1966@hotmail.com

James Welcome
Thats a nice setup you are looking at, I'm guessing your room is similar to mine in that there is no reasonable way to put the Q's on stands behind the couch for rear 7.1's


This picture is old, I now use QS8's up in the rear and they sound good.

JW, another welcome. First, the easy part(which of course you didn't ask about): the side surrounds in a 7.1 setup should be directly to the side of the listeners(not farther back)on the side walls and maybe 2-3' above ear level. As to the back surrounds, the lack of a convenient back wall doesn't really have much effect on the sound, but it of course raises the mounting problem that you're discussing. Although you obviously tried to give a detailed description of some options, I had some difficulty really picturing the scene. To throw out my first thought, a good position for them might be about 8' behind the listening position and separated by at least 8'(wider than the likely position of any listeners). Although I don't usually suggest stands, my first thought in your situation is to ask whether it would be acceptable aesthetically and otherwise to put the QS8s on Axiom QS stands or some other that would have them about 4' up and 8' behind the seats.

Greetings, HomeDad and JohnK!
Thanks for the reply(s)!
Great living area HomeDad! My placement for the rear
surrounds would be similar to where yours are, if I do the first option. The reason I am hesitant about that setup, is I wanted to have the rear surrounds a bit closer together than the sides, which will be directly in line with my listening position (thanks, JohnK) and that would be impossible unless I extend the "full metel bracket" arm out about a foot or so. I suppose I will call Axiom and see if that is doable.
I don't think that stands would do for my rears. I have a 14 month old boy, James JR, that seems to be as entranced by any form of technology as I
My celing vault runs the opposite direction from Homedad's in relation to my listening position, while my exposed support beams follow the vault, not run perpendicular to it.
Hope this helps define my setup a bit more...
Best,
James W Barron
snowtrooper1966@hotmail.com

BTW, JohnK, thanks for Ren & Stimpy

Yeah, about three years ago someone seriously wanted to know if that was me, but I'm more into de-animation.