Hello all,

Well I am getting close to making a purchasing decision on a set of new Axiom speaker but, I would like to get some advice on my potential setup first. I have some what of a difficult room which constrains where I can place my TV and therefor speakers. Price is not so much an issue as I will be keeping this setup for a long, long time FYI cathedral ceiling 8-15ft

1.) Are two EP500 overkill for what will be about 500 square feet or will it allow a more even base distribution at a lower volume?

2.) How much of an acoustical hit will I take by placing the M80 into a customer wall cabinets with acoustical screening over them vs. freestanding on the floor in the same spot? I am making some custom cabinets for my setup and would like to place my M80 in side the cabinets.

3.) Will my side and rear surround speakers work alright at these positions? I am worried that two of the listening positions on the sides of the room will be right under a wall mounted QS8 at about 5'-6' height.

4.) Will having the rear channels in the back of the room really help augment my sound stage given their placements?

5.) Last but not least my new receiver an Onkyo NR905 by specs should drive everything alright in theory. Does anyone have any first hand experience with this specific model. I know the 905 has a hefty toroidal power supply and Onkyo said 4ohmn speakers for L/R should be no problem.

Cheers all and I cannot what to get a system put together.

Here is a jpeg of my room diagram.
http://picasaweb.google.com/murphyalbums/HomeTheater/photo#5179293428895493394

1. If you plan on seating people in multiple rows and truly care about what your audience hears, you should get multiple subs. I suggest you get 3 EP350s instead of 2 EP500s unless you feel you can afford 3 EP500s. The subs should be placed at the mid-points of walls or in the corners. The corners may lead to bass heaviness so you will have to experiment. If you don't want to experiment, place them at the mid-points.

2. Do NOT place your M80s into cabinets if you plan on doing any music listening (particularly 2.1). You will totally destroy their off-axis characteristics causing them to lose transparency and present a smaller sound-stage. Some may tell you that you can put them in a cabinet as long as they protrude a little. I say no way. The cabinet you put them in will colour their sound.

3. You will need to experiment with this. If you don't want to experiment, angle the QS8s down so that they are 45 degrees to the normal.

4. They will augment the sound stage but the question is should you get QS8s or direct radiators? Again, you should experiment. If you don't want to experiment, go with direct radiators. Place the rears 1/3 of the distance from each side wall.

5. You'll have no problem whatsoever with that Onkyo and the M80s.

Good luck and post pics and reviews when done.

judging by your jpg I think you need to plan on having your side surrounds at least even with the seating area if not a little behind it. HAving them in front is not really ideal.

Would it not be possible to put the couch up even with side surrounds? or perhaps if you plan on pulling it up even with the surrounds during movies that would work.

Also it looks like you are planning on placing the ep500 in front of the left m80... I would not reccomend this. If you had planned on raising the m80's above the ep500 I think that the tweeters will be too high.

anyway, you do have a challenging room- with a little planning and experimenting I am sure you will find the optimum set up for your given room

your setup is verry simalar to mine and I went with two 600s and dont regret it one bit. I also second mojos comment on not putting the m80s in cabinets. You should read through my thread on my home theater (new theater underway) lots of good info in there helped me out allot.

P.S. Your gonna love the m80s

Would a possible solution be to move my side speakers were my rear surrounds were positioned and than put the rears all the way on the back wall? That would place the rears ~17' behind the listening position and I am thinking would be a total waste at that point.

Also what if I moved the up front EP500 to the back of the room next to the fireplace hearth essentially under the QS8?

Thanks for the advice all!

I think it would be good to move the ep500 like you suggested... HAving them at midpoints on opposite sidewalls is supposedly an ideal configuration... I would just do som experimenting.

You could hang the rear surrounds from the ceiling with some ceiling mounts that don't allow them to stick down much.

I think 17' is too far IMO, but I have never ran a 7.1 (or 2) setup (just 5.1), so that is just a guess.

I think I would go single QS8 for a 6 channel system and you could mount it on the wall behind the couch and still get a good rear channel feel or as Terzaghi said ceiling mount them for 7 channels

oh- just realized you had vaulted ceilings- I guess ceiling mounting won't work!

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

So for my rear surrounds -
Option #1 it would be possible to wall mount them at 8' height on either side of the room behind the couches marked SR#1 on my new diagram.

Option #2 mount them on the back wall listed as SR #2.

Someone mentioned direct fire for the rear surrounds would that be something like the M22?

Updated Diagram
http://picasaweb.google.com/murphyalbums/HomeTheater/photo#5179465949141839138

Cheers,
-Robert

You are not going to get much for surround effect with the side surrounds mounted that far behind in diagram #2. I would keep the side surrounds in the same position as in dia. 1. The rear surrounds are ok way back there and yes, M2 or M22 would be the speaker of choice. They would throw the sound more forward to the listening positions. Not sure if they would be much benefit with the couches behind that wall though. The wall would effectively block the sound from reaching you.

So Jason are you suggesting than that for my side surrounds that they be placed where they are in my first diagram where they are in front of the primary listening position or what I designated as SR#1 in my second diagram?

Mastaplaya I got a chance to look at your home theater thread and that helped as well.

-Robert

Not that I have the room for a 2nd EP600 or need any more power right now.. but how to people typically run the signal to more than one sub? My pre-amp only has one LFE channel, do you just split them?

you just use a y splitter ,or you can daisy chain the subs together since the ep500 and 600 have an input and output

good to know. I might build my next house OUT of subwoofers in that case.

Scurvy, the first diagram, as they are not quite fully in front of you especially in the side couch where it is above the couch. I really think that wall will cause some sound issues and the only way around it is to have the speakers in that area.

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but Axiom is apparently working on in wall tower speakers (M80). You may want to contact them to discuss how they would work if you were planning built ins and when they may be available...

Thanks for all the advice folks. I ended up rotating my viewing position in the room by 90 degrees and I think I will have an ideal setup now. I went with the splitter on my sub and picked up some great sub cables locally from Blue Jean.

I will upload some pics in a few weeks when I am done building my cherry cabinets!

-R