Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Custom-built QS-Series wall mounts?

Has anyone built a "mounting plaque" for their QS series surround?

I have an older house with horsehair plaster walls and, in my experience with previous wall-mounted items, the "T bracket" affixed to the wall will not be sufficient. I need to mount the T Bracket to a wooden "base" that will allow me to spread the weight and "pull" over a larger area so the vibrations won't simply turn the plaster to powder and weaken the mount as the speaker vibrates.

For instance, I'm wondering if there have ever been any experiments in terms of the size of a mount such as this. Are these speakers really so diffuse that there isn't much point-source imaging at all or the mounting makes very little difference? In short, would a speaker on a small, hidden mount, kind of "floating" the speaker out from the wall an inch, sound different from a speaker mounted on, say, an oversized plaque with a glossy, hard finish? Certainly, a "regular" speaker put along a sidewall with mirror tiles would image different than the same speaker along a wall that had heavy drapes along it's length. I guess that's what I'm wondering as it would relate to the QS series.

Also the plaster, being much harder than sheetrock (which dampens sound) is much more likely to "vibrate" when the QS8s are cranking. I'm wondering about putting some sort of a rubber or heavy foam "sheet" between the mount and the wall to help ensure there's no buzzing or other bad interactions.

I really won't be able to do much with the QS8s until I have this mount ready to go, so I'm hoping to get ahead of the game and pre-build them, just leaving finish decisions (I'm thinking I will match the Beech finish) and attaching the "T Mount" until the speakers arrive. Otherwise, I won’t be able to do anything with the surrounds for several days while I build and finish the mount.

Has anyone built a custom QS mount who would be willing to pass along some experience?

Hi Mark, I have a solution I used which may work for you. Take a look here .

Since I already had shelves (1" thick) that were made to match my custom TV stand AND the QS8s are very forgiving AND I didn't want to fool with wires/mounting stuff, I used the shelves.

The main issues were 1) avoiding angling the speakers in the corner (wanted them them flat against the wall), 2) assuring there was enough clearance on the sides of the speakers closest to the wall and 3) providing "breathing space" for the bottom woofer.

I went to a local Home Depot-type of store and found some hard rubber plumbing couplers that were tall enough (2"-21/2" I believe) to elevate the bottom woofer and firm/stable enough to support the weight of the speakers. I had seen some input from Alan that said 1" or more was sufficient for the bottom woofer. I am 3"-4" inches from the back wall and flush to the side wall. I figured I'd try it and if it didn't work, I could get involved with a more time consuming solution, although I REALLY wanted to avoid that if possible .

Summary - it has proven to be a terrific solution and they sound great. Any degradation of audio, if there was any to begin with, was overcome when I calibrated the speakers. I am still amazed with the sound coming from the QS8s and friends comment on them all the time. As an aside, one of the things I considered with this configuration was to cut a 3"-5" hole in each shelf under the woofer to allow the sound to escape through the bottom. Turns out it wasn't necessary.

I mention all of this because it may give you a more robust solution by being able to anchor shelves to the walls you described. Hope it's helpful.

Hi Ray- Thanks for the response!
That's the type of mount I was originally planning... more "shelf-like" than "plaque-mount" style. Interestingly, I had designed this originally: (Sorry about the poor image- I just needed something quick to bring to the workshop...)


but then starting thinking I really didn't need the support under the speaker... it could "hang" from the T Bracket if mounted to the "plaque".

Are the couplers that you're using attached to the shelf or speakers?

The couplers aren't attached to either. They are pretty substantial in their own right and are simply sitting on the shelf, with the speakers sitting on them. I was concerned that there might movement due to vibration, but the rubber couplers also appear to act as dampers and nothing has moved.

It's not a tremendously elegant solution, but it is functional. I like your design. Will you be able to adequately anchor into the wall with those things or would you be better having a shelf design and provide support underneath?

In looking at your potential solution, make sure you have enough room on either side for the couplings to sit under the speaker and be sure that the couplers are far enough out towards the sides to allow the woofer to work, i.e., you can't sit the edge of the woofer directly on the couplers.

This is probably difficult for you to visualize since you don't have your speakers yet. Once you get them, pull the bottom cover off the woofer and you'll see what I mean.

Also, have you considered floor stands? Axiom has them and there are some available at other places, including Parts Express. I chose not to use them because of my concerns with stability, height and space. Also, a crazed dog chasing a toy or an inquisitive child could wreak havoc. I have seen some stands that allow you to fill the base with birdshot or sand, but I'd still want to anchor them to the wall in some way. They also grow in expense as they get to be more substantial in design.

EDIT - I took another look at your design and mounting the plaque THEN mounting the bracket makes sense (I didn't think about that earlier). You are correct - your approach eliminates the need for support under the speakers. Keep in mind that using the T-bracket will require that you connect via bare wire (not much clearance for anything else). The only thing you need to worry about is hiding the wire, but you can always use wire channel and attach it to the wall.

Yes, I use a wire channel with my current setup. These are easily paintable and "disappear" pretty easily:


Although my old direct-radiating speakers were corner mounted, the next image is marked with my planned location for the QS8s. The sectional is up against the wall, so there's not room to put the QS8s "slightly behind" the listener. I have actually considered moving them a bit more rearward than the location shown, as I thought the rear-firing tweeter might bounce off that rear wall for even less directionality. Anyone have any thoughts with QS surrounds on side walls but near corners? Better a couple of inches from the corner or a couple of feet?:


Finally, since I took those photos, I figured I'd take one of the equipment:


This illustrates the problems I had written about regarding my limited positioning for the coming M60s. I have a closet (to the left as visible in the photo) that doesn't allow me to put the left speaker equidistant from the right one according to the monitor. For times when I'm actually sitting on the sectional and watching a DVD or critically listening, I drag the left speaker over to the left in front of the closet door. I just read something (from Alan maybe?) regarding M60s in corners as not ideal positioning. Unfortunately, I have no choice. I hope after all this waiting, I wouldn't have been better off with M22s!

Not visible in the photo, but just to the right of the subwoofer, is the entrance to the room. The subwoofer was recently moved there, greatly improving the sound from the previous corner placement behind the "corner" of the sectional. This "very visible" sub location was what caused me to give the nod to an Axiom sub with it's "matched" finish. I'm hoping the Beech system I ordered would be fairly close to matching the floors. My wife is not crazy about these wide "panel" DCM Timeframes, and for me, they take up too much wall space that could later be used for a Samsung 46" DLP... or whatever's looking good in six months. At that point, I might move the Bell'O rack to the right corner and flank the monitor with the M60s. The M60s won't be spread as far as I'd like, but it will get the right one away from the corner and would mean I don't have to keep dragging the left one over, since I intend to do more of that critical listening and general HT enjoyment!

Any thoughts regarding the M60 positioning from anyone? I can experiment, but Bell'O doesn't recommend moving the rack with equipment on it, so it could be very involved just to try switching the rack and right M60 for that right-side corner position!

The cabin my friends and family rent each year in Tahoe has those same Optimus speakers in the corners of the main room. Your QS8s will blow them away!

OT: That tahoe cabin reminds of all my friends' cabins I use. Seems like all of them are furnished w/ the 70's castoffs from the main house. How many have you gone to that had 8 tracks and those turntables that could hold multiple records on the spindle?

This can be an option too:

B Tech

I was going to use it for my VP150 or QS8s but changed my mind. If you're interested, PM me. I still have them and they've never been mounted.

OT: No 8-tracks. I may have seen a record player in one cabin, but we only stay at one place, now. It has a CD-changer.

Mark, I live in an 1870s townhouse, with plaster walls. Using a masonry drill bit and correspondingly sized plastic anchors, I attached by QS8s to the walls using the t-anchors. I also mounted my center speaker VP100 over the plasma using the FMB in the same manner.

I don't play music at ear bleeding levels, but I've had no problems (fingers-crossed) with either surrounds or center speaker working loose.

This solution is not nearly so elegant as what you are describing for your place, but it does work for me. Just thought you might want to consider. Cheers!