Considering a fictual setup as following in a 7.1 environment, everybody agree that one of the best way to go would be:

2 x M80's -- Front
1 x VP150 -- Center
2 x QS8 -- Surrounds
??? -- Surrounds back
1 x SVS PB2+ sub.

NOW, for surrounds back speakers, people opinions differs widely. Some suggest another set of QS8 but some say that the diffusion is "too much" with the already QS8 surrounds and suggest direct radiating speakers like M2i or M3ti. Some say that putting 2 more QS8 would soud awesome but don't have any argument to say that it would in fact be better. Anybody can give their opinion of why they would put QS8 or M2i or M3ti as surround back? Keep in mind that using this 7.1 system would give 4 QS8 if you suggest to go with 2 QS8 for surrounds and 2 QS8 for surrounds back.

Thank you,

Sylvain

i just ordered the epic 80 and was thinking about doing the same setup as you but i was thinking QS4's and adding another sub 1 for the front and 1 for the rear i posted under "more speakers" but have only got 1 reply and he said M2's, so the jury is still out in my case.
i have a yamaha rxz1 and it calls for front side effect speakers for the dsp.

I cannot recommend strongly enough that a pair of M2's or other direct radiators are the best option for rear surrounds in 7.1. To my knowledge, rear surround information is meant for directional speakers, and if you want to get into DVD-Audio or SACD, these high resolution 5.1 formats sound much better, in my experience, with the surround channels directed to my M2's than my QS4's. I have done it both ways, and to my ears the sound of 5.1 music is much better with direct speakers all around. A pair of M2's is less expensive as well. In fact, unless your room is huge, you could get M60's instead of M80's, and have more than enough money left over for the M2's

how high would you mount the m2s?

For DVD-A and SACD playback ear level is best.

Mark

I would definitely use M2s or M3s for the rears in a 7.1 setup. At the moment I have M60s, VP150, QS8s and a SVS PB2-isd with (cough!!!) Tannoy 631SE bookshelves on the rear wall.

As per the great recommendation of a fellow board member my Denon 3805 has 7.1 inputs so I wire the surround channels from my DVD-Audio player so that it uses channels 6 & 7 (rear Tannoys) rather than 4 & 5 (side QS8s). Even though the Tannoys aren't up to the quality of the Axioms it sounds better this way. I will get Axioms for the rear, but since I just spent $4000 this month on audio equipment I'd better wait a while or my girlfriend will castrate me.

As for the rear postions, I mounted them at the same height as the QS8s, 2 feet above ear level, and pointed them down and in. According to Denon they should not be directed straight forward as this may cause adverse reflections from your TV / front wall etc.

As a note, the Denon 3805 actually allows wiring of full 7.1, then another set of surrounds for multi-channel audio. You can set which surrounds you want to use with each source. Cool if you can fit 9 speakers and a sub in your room.

Dave

if your GIRLFRIEND will castrate you, just imagine what would happen if you two were married!

She'd castrate his dog too.

We already took care of one dog, with the new pup soon to follow. I'd like to keep my two veg.

Well...if you wait till next week I'll have a report for you on just this. By Friday I'll have 7.1 with M2s in the rear and QS8s on the side, with M60s being the mains.

I started with M3s for the rear surrounds. Something was missing - so I replaced them with M22s. They seem to blend much better with the QS8s.

So redjet, you have QS8 for surrounds and M22's for surrounds back? Have you tried the QS8 for surrounds back?

At what height you have your M22's are placed and did you put them horizontally or vertically? I mean, like a bookshelf or like a center channel and what about your QS8 surrounds height?

Sylvain

Those running 7.1 with hi-rez audio running out of the rears - how do you have the rear speakers set up? Isn't the customary 7.1 setup with the front three as normal, the surrounds to the direct L/R of you, and the rears mostly behind you, but offset to the L/R (similar to the front speakers)? The question is, for a normal 5.1 SACD, Sony recommends the rear speaker at 115 deg from front (or 25 deg behind direct L/R), which would make it closer to direct L/R than the rears of a 7.1 setup. Do you guys relocate the speakers everytime to go from 7.1 to 5.1, or just have the rears set-up wider apart from each other?

Thanks,

Not a perfect setup, but here's how mine are. It was the best compromise I could come up with.



It works for me and sounds pretty damn good - although a little more separation wouldn't hurt on those rears. Of course the amp (Denon 3805) allows another set of speakers for DVD-Audio / SACD, but where would I put them?