Hey gals and gents,

Now that I am enclosing my theater room off from the rest of the recroom/bar area, I will be changing the placement of my 4 Qs8's.

Prior to the change the depth of the room was about 30ft, and the rear Qs8's were about 2-3ft behind the 2nd row seats and 3ft above your ears. The rear wall I just constructed gives be about 17ft of depth. Because of this, both my 1st and 2nd rows of seating will be slid forward in the room a few feet. Also, the 2nd row which is up on a riser will pretty much be up against the back wall now.

The wall alone the right side of the room I put in gives me a bit more width than I had before, and I am putting in some solid oad french doors. Both my side surrounds are going to be moved forward and will be just a bit in front of the 1st row seating.

My question is in regards to where to place my rear Qs8's. I know in other discussions it has been said that if you don't have any seperation from the rear speakers, it is not ideal. But, there will be seperation from the 1st row of seating, just not the back row, other than them being above the listeners ears 3 ft.. I suppose with the couch thickness they will still have about a ft. of seperation.

Also, I'm struggling with how far apart to place them in relationship. I was thinking that maybe moving them a bit closer, might help with a better rear channel experience. If they are to spread out, they may be harder to distinguish from the sides.

I also thought about angling them downward possibly. If there is anyone running 7.1 in a similar setup with the rear surrounds close to the 2nd row of seating I would love to hear from you. I think most of the discussions detouring people from doing this are if you only have one couch along the back wall, which is not my situation.

thanks again...Randy

Randy, I'll suggest that you have the guests who you don't really like all that much sitting in the back row. As to separation, the back surrounds should still be far enough apart so that any listener could get both a back left and back right image; i.e., they should be wider apart than the seating area.

Sounds good John, I was considering that as well. The back row is actually a 3 person sofa with recliners, and is pretty wide. I believe it is an Eddie Bauer brand if anyone cares.

At this point the rear surrounds would be seperated enough so they are just on the outside of the couch.

One other question I forgot to mention, is how to mount the Q's to the walls. Previously, I had them hanging from the ceilings using brackets. They will not be flat against the walls.

If I use the supplied T-Bracket, do you guys just have the speakers wires sticking out through a hole in the drywall behind each speaker location? Or should I use a speaker terminal/plate of some kind, then have a shorter length of cable hooking to the speaker?

I do have one surround (left channel) that I may have to consider getting some of Axiom's flat wire with terminal black as that wall does not have any framing behind it..

Randy I planned the layout for all of the speakers in our room using Alan's setup guide for 'Dolby Digital EX/Dolby Pro LogicIIx/7.1 channels' in his "Essential Guide to Home Theater Layout" article. I used a common protractor then marked the suggested speaker locations in degrees on a garage workbench stool with a magic marker, placed the stool in the primary listening position (sweetspot) with the center aimed directly to the center of the main wall and then used a laser light pen and a pencil to mark the location on each wall for each speaker.

As to mounting the QS8s, I initially was going to use some recessed wall plates from PartExpress but chucked that idea whenever I found how much of a PIA it was going to be trying to connect a short run of wire between the plate and the QS8 and instead went with a bare wire sticking out of the wall, much easier and simpler. Without seeing exactly what your you are dealing with on the wall without a void, I really don't know what to suggest there.



Dolby Digital EX/Dolby Pro LogicIIx/7.1 channels

Ummm, Rick?

You have a little stool showing....

That's an issue I've been trying to rectify Mark, the progress has been slow though.

That is a great idea Rick, may have to so something like that...

Our basement foundation is called Ice Block which is an insulated concrete form. Many home builders used this now in place of standard concrete poured in forms, that are removed after the concrete sets.

Basically, you have insulated foam on the inside and outside, with an 8" void in the middle that is filled with concrete. There is rebar placed vertically and horizontally within the void. There is a 2" wide plastic strip about every 12" where you can screw into like you would a stud for hanging things. You don't have to put up any framing, the drywall screws right to it.... the R value for efficiency is way above a standard poured foundation.

I did that to my mom once...I love playing jokes on her.

I was painting and doing other work in her bathroom, and I had a step stool in there 'cuz I'm short. I came out from there one day after just going in to get started, and said "Mom, I need to talk to you. I know it's an embarrassing subject, but we're all adults. I just noticed that there was a little stool on the floor of your bathroom. Is everything OK?"

Once she started to get over the whole "that can't be true" thing, she followed me into the bathroom where I pointed it out.

She still laughs about it now.

Now that I read that back, it sounds pretty bad, but that's the type of relationship I've always had with her.

Besides, those types of jokes are fun. I needed to put air in one of my snowblower's tires before the last storm, so I told Joyce I was going to charge it down in the basement, then carry it out to the garage to fill the tire.

After, she asked me how it worked out. I told her "Well, carrying it back in after wasn't too bad, but what a bitch carrying that thing out to the garage! When that tank is full, it's heavier than a sonofabitch. Carrying it back in when the tank was empty was SO much easier!".

She didn't fall for it, though I enjoyed trying.

Am I off-topic yet?

I'd think by now your mom is either totally on edge or simply calloused with her surroundings whenever she's around you Mark.

Speaking of off topic...

What the heck is this 'snowblower' contraption you speak of?

Since my side surrounds are moving forward a bit from their current location, I will need to add/splice some extra wire to my existing wiring. What is the best way to do this? I assume you would twist them togethor and then maybe use some of the rubber/shrink stuff to lock them togethor?

Randy I'd use a proper size butt connector, fill it with dielectric grease and then either use heat shrink tubing or electrical tape. You could use just about any type of electrical connector that most anybody would carry.

Ah ha ... seek, and ye shall find!

A Comprehensive Guide to Splicing Speaker Wire

I'd still use some dielectric grease myself though.

I'm seeing that with butt connectors, the copper from each wire is not touching, is that why you say use dialectric grease? What if you twist the wires togethor well, and just use the shrink tubing? Or will that not give me a secure connection? since this will be inwall I want to do it right.

thanks for the help.

A butt connector is a small aluminum tube with a plastic cover, whenever you crimp the butt connector onto the wire the metal of the butt connector itself conducts the electricity or whatever current you have ... the dielectric grease is non-conductive and only helps the connection to avoid moisture and corrosion. We use dielectric grease on each and every electrical connection on our airplanes and I've made it a habit to use it almost any time I'm doing any type of electrical connection around the house.

What Is Dielectric Grease?

Randy, I've seen this before. Did you purchase the house brand new? I'm just curious of the extra expense (maybe a percentage).

Thanks

Randy, re bare wiring the QS8s and using the T-brackets, it's no biggie. Just bare wire to the posts as normal, but make sure the clips engage with the T-bracket because the wires want to push the speaker away from the wall. As I've mentioned a few times before, the easiest method is to bend the mating clips on the bracket slightly to help guide the adjoining clips.

I used a bare wire connection with my qs8's which are mounted flat against the wall with the supplied t bracket. I don't think there would be room for any other connection, unless sometype of recessed wall plate was used.

For you folks near the ocean dielectric grease is required but for the rest of us without the huge moisture problems it is less of a requirement.

For a permanent connection I would solder the splice in and then use heat shrink to seal it up.

Hey Cam, we had this house built about 10yrs ago and the builder only used this type of foundation. I can't tell you the cost difference off hand, but I recall the advantages outweighed what ever increase in cost there might be. I'm sure today as more builders use this the cost may have come down, it was kinda new back then...

Just make sure there is no stool showing from that butt connection.

I recall seeing it for the first time on one of those home renovation television shows (I believe it was This Old House if memory serves me correctly) quite a few years ago and thought it was pretty darn cool at the time.

I would postulate that you did have energy efficiency in mind despite the fact that it appears you had no choice as the builder only constructed that type of foundation? Just asking because this kind of stuff really enthralls me.

For interests sake, Habitat For Humanity built two or three houses just a couple doors down from me, and they are all straw built houses and extremely energy efficient. One of them has solar panels, triple pane windows, and the works; I believe it's one of the most efficient houses in Canada.

I don't know if it interests you, but I thought I'd mention it because it's pretty damn cool (just like your place).

Hey! Here's an article about it on Habitat For Humanity's website.

Sorry for hijacking . Carry on…

There was a Hijacking?

Hey folks, the remodeling is going well.. I have a question regarding the full metal bracket versus using the supplied T bracket.

My Q's are about 7ft off the ground to the bottom driver (9ft ceilings). I'm curious if anyone has gone from a flat installation (like when you use the T-bracket) to the full metal bracket, which allows for tilting and left/right adjustments.

I'm thinking that by tilting the Q's downward a bit it might help direct the sound a little more towards the listening area. I know the surround affects are supposed to envelope you, and that the Q's are forgiving.

I'm just thinking that they are so high off the ground and tilting them downward a bit might make things better, especially for the rear speakers that are now closer to the back row, due to remodeling and adding the rear wall.

thanks, randy

If you think the height is an issue; why can't you mount them closer to the ground?

The rear seats are on a riser, and above that there is a bump down area that is finished off around the heating/cooling runs. So I don't want to go any lower on the back wall and want the speakers to be as close as possible to the same height.

The new wall along the right side will have a solid wood double door, and the right speaker will be above that for ideal location.

Also, I forgot to mention that the wall on the door side angles wider as you go from front to backof the room, so the ability to adjust left/right with the bracket also allows me to direct the speakers towards the left speaker on the other side of the room.

I know Michael_D likes his and does angle them downward. They are a bit pricy, but fit the furnished threads on the back of the Q's. I have not found another bracket with the same threading and weight capacity.

Just curious if anyone noticed a difference acoustically from changing a speaker direction that fires above your head to more at you.

I went from using the FMB to flat 'T' install but I also went from that 7' mounting position down to a 5.5' position with proper side placement and I must say I much prefer my new room/surround placements. I did have my old FMB angled a bit, I don't recall if I ever tried them on the FMB without being angled.

you should put your up on the auction site.

I have been considering it, along with my ceiling mount.