Help! Can't decide between quadpolar or direct radiating for my surround and surround back speakers (7.1 setup).

1. Am I correct to understand that in a rectangular / shoebox type of room, four of the QS8's would produce a better surround field than four M3's?

Unfortunately my room is L shaped where the area behind my seating opens up on one side (small kitchenette).

2. Would direct radiating speakers do a better job of keeping the sound field "out" of the kitchenette and focus it more towards the seating area?

3. What about a combination of two QS8's for the surrounds and two M3's for the surround backs or vice versa?

4. How much clearance from the ceiling and adjacent side wall will I need for the QS8? Actually, this alone may force me to use the M3 instead since one of the surrounds would need to be mounted in a small recess putting the speaker only 1-2inches below the ceiling and 3inches away from the adjacent wall. I don't think a QS8 would like that tight of a space...

Any and all feedback welcome as usual, thanks in advance.

If you have room behind you to mount the rear surrounds say 4-6' back then direct radiators like the M3s would be best IMO and for side surrounds I would still go with the QS8's if they are mounted within 4-6' of the listening position and in my experience they usually are. Other wise the extra distance to the listener will allow a direct raditor to work nearly as well, if not better than the QS8s. The lack of height won't matter too much for the QS8s, I had mine about 2-3" below the ceiling and they worked great, as they are designed to bounce sound around the room.

I think axiom reccomends about 4" between the qs8 drivers and the ceiling. I think you could get by with a little less. I agree the qs8's for sides and the m3's or qs 8's for back surround duty would be fine. Either way, I would try to go with 1set of qs8's since they truly are a great surround speaker

For your recessed area, is it possible to build a small wooden box to place between the wall and the speaker? You might also consider a ceiling mount.

Do you have any pictures or a floor plan of your room you could upload?

1) No, I would say this is not correct. My theater setup is in one corner of a larger 8,000 cu ft room. I have 4 Qs8's and they work perfect. The purpose of the surround speaker is to wrap or envelope you in the experience. For a direct radiating speaker this experience only comes for the person in the sweet spot. With the Q's, everyone is in the sweet spot.

Your room is not unusual, and actually more common.


2) No matter what speakers you use, your going to hear them throughout the house, direct or not. Again, the purpose of the surround channels is to envelope you in the sound, not be to a pinpoint location. In theaters, the walls are "lined" with many direct radiating speakers, the Q's simulate these many speakers in one package.

3) I don't have a problem with 4 Qs8's, but some people will go with Q's for the "side" surrounds, and use direct radiating for the "back" surrounds because they say they are better for muli channel music listening. Personally, I think the Q's do great for both music and movies.

4) It is best if the top/bottom driver have at least 4+ inches to breath a little. Maybe if you provide a drawing/picture of your situation we can give you options. The Q's are very forgiving on placement, because they "do" wrap you in the sound, so they are not as picky on placement. They don't have to be symetric with each other. They can be wall or ceiling mounted with the right bracket...

Yes, I do have more than 6ft. from my seating to the back wall. As for the side surrounds, one would be within 6ft. but the other would be around 13ft. away.

I'm itching to give the QS8's a shot with all the positive things everyone has to say about them.

Yes! I could do that! That might just solve it for me...

I new someone would ask, LOL. I'll try and draw one up today and upload it.

Man, the more I read about the QS8's the more I want to find a way to make them work.

I was concerned about their performance with multi-channel music, so glad to hear that you are happy with it. As long as it doesn't sound too bad I won't mind.

I will try and get a floorplan up today. If I build a box for the recessed area then I won't need to worry about clearance.

My room is far from ideal and symmetrical placment of speakers is not an option, so it is music to my ears to hear you say that the QS8's are very forgiving when it comes to placement!

I don't listen to a lot of multi channel music, but I do have a few concert DVD's and the surrounds to great...

From the description I would go with QS8s as surrounds and possibly even the rears

So, what exactly is the tradeoff between the QS and a direct radiator like the M3? Is there ever an advantage to using a direct radiator??

Excellent, I was worried about that but no longer.

Yup, I think I'm going QS8 all around .

IIRC direct speakers are, well, more directional (ie. easier to pinpoint or locate) while the QS creates a seamless (can't think of the right word right now) surround field. Probably not explained well, sorry.

Also I think the directs are usually less expensive.

I'll throw out a quick reply that I too find the QS-series great for multichannel music. If I ever go 7.1, I wouldn't even consider direct radiators, and would only use QS-*s I like them so much!

Awesome! Sounds like a winner, makes me feel dumb for even asking now.

I know at Mojo's his rears get a little lost, not much impact compqared to his side surrounds and even then not a lot of impact, but all of of his surround speakers are at least 8-10 ft away. I think his system would sound even better with direct radiating speakers for surrounds and rears.

From the sweet spot in our 7.1 room the QS8s are placed 7' for the side surrounds and 9' for the rears and we've never felt like these speakers were ever inadequate for the room, matter of fact for proper room calibration the rear surrounds are set at -2Db while the side are calibrated at -0Db. I had thought about connecting our M60s as rear surrounds but in all honesty I just don't know that they'll be any better so I never bothered.

These QS8 speakers are very impressive little jewels.

C'mon Rick enquiring minds want to know, hook up those M60s as rear channels, then sides and finally one as a center

Yahh, C'mon Rick! flip those M60s over and put them on top of your M80s!!

I don't know about stacking them on the 80s Adrian but I did try an M60 as a center, excellent audio but it was difficult to watch the TV with that floorstanding M60 sticking in front of the screen ... what I didn't do and what just did come to mind though is placing an M60 back as a single center and maybe playing a few hours of surround music, I may very well do that.

I'm now using a VP100 on top of our 73" screen and a VP150 below the screen which works perfectly fine and plants the dialog onto the center of the screen for TV and movie viewing but for surround music (usually DDPLxII or Logic7 7ch Music) it almost seems like the center audio is a little higher than the mains (probably because while listening to music I'm usually in and out of the room and not sitting my big arse on the couch) ... that's where, I bet, the single 60 will absolutely shine.

Jay I'm thinking one reason why the Q8s are maybe fitting the bill like green on grass for us is that our room dimensions are probably close to ideal (rectangular 25'x14') and the location of the QS8s to the seating within the room is most likely where they really show their wares and I really just haven't had any hints whatsoever of needing anything better, they are truly very amazing speakers and I just couldn't imagine anything else doing a more perfect role.

But you will never really know until you try.......

Single 60 upfront and one for the rear channel one more experiment for you to try out You can always build a stage for the TV to sit on

Man, you are too tough Jay. OK, I'll try one or two of the 60s in the back and see how they stack up with the QS8s ... but I'm drawing the line at the 600 though, no way am I going to resort myself to monkey humpin' that heavy beast around the room.

I did place a 60 up front and have been listening to multi-channel music for a good part of the day and it is most definitely getting the job done, the 80s along with a 60 as a center makes for a really sweet and seamless soundstage.

No, the EP600 has the wrong port for monkey humping.

I've been trying to get my wife to allow me to put an M60/M80 as a center in the new house but she is having none of it. the best I am gong to do is one of my M22s or the usual VP series, maybe even dual like you are running, VP150 and VP100.

I don't believe you can't go wrong with the 100/150 combo Jay, they really do make for a great combination.

Ken the next time the 600 gets moved around by me it's going be with the use of the dolly we have out in the garage ... love the sub, hate moving the thing.

I tried the Vp100/150 combo before and it did sound pretty good. I think I liked the M22 better, it has a smoother SQ than the VP series, IMO. But in the new home I may not even like any of my speakers any more so who knows