I have been bitten by the upgrade bug once again, and I will be upgrading my AVR to a 7.1. Now I need to get some back surround speakers for this. My current setup has some cheap Wharfdale speakers for the surrounds. I saw these Axiom QS8s and everyone seems to like them. I was thinking of getting a pair of these and putting them where my surrounds are now (or is there a better spot?), and moving my current surrounds to the back.
Here is a pic of the layout of my HT room. I have shown the location where I would put the back surround speakers (direct fire) towards the front of the room? They would have to go up as close as possible to the ceiling as this is our main entrance. I can however place them anywhere along the wall above the closet doors as there is room.
Can anyone recomend this or another setup in my situation?

Thanks
Steve

SteveY,



The only problem I see with that arrangement is the rear surround location that's clsest to your front door. It's awfully close to the edge of the wall behind your L-couch. You might be better served by mounting a single QS8 directly above that closet.

Steve!

Peter, I've got a sneakin' suspicion that wall just behind the couch is a half wall. Hope so. If it is then the rear surround placement would be OK. If not, then Peter's suggestion of a single QS8 above the door is a good one.

Steve, the party line is that it's preferred that all speakers match sonically as much as possible. This usually means "use speakers by the same manufacturer." However, matching the front 3 speakers is considered to be considerably more critical than matching the surrounds to the front 3 due to the limited amount of information the surrounds are required to carry.

I have no personal experience using the QS8s with speakers other than Axioms, so I cannot say how well, or poorly, this would work. But, I'm aware of several who use them with other brands, who appear satisfied with the results.

Though I've not heard a large number of surround speakers, the QS8s are, far and away, the best I've ever owned, and I'm completely satisfied with them. Here is my standard QS8 statement:

The QS8s are startlingly immersing. My standard comment on the QS8s is "the thing I notice most about the QS8s is that I DON’T notice them." They do a wonderful job of providing the surround experience without calling attention to themselves in any way. They do not distract from the movie.

Ajax, that wall behind the couch is a full wall (floor to ceiling) unfortunately. Can you purchase the QS8s individually? Because if I go with your suggestion, then I would need 3 of them.
My front 3 speakers are Paradigm Studio 40s and CC-570.
What would be the major difference between having only one back surround as opposed to two?

Thanks
Steve

Yes. You can buy the QS8s, or any speaker for that matter, individually. One QS8 would run $300.

At this point in time, I don't believe there would be THAT much difference between 6.1 and 7.1. There just isn't that many disks with discrete rear channel information. In a 7.1 configuration, it usually is the same monaural signal that is sent to each rear surround (I'm not sure if that's the case with Pro Logic IIx). Having 2 speakers in the rear, just provides a bit better dispersion, and thus, a slightly more immersing experience. But I don't think you'd be missing much with just one speaker in the rear. It's possible that 7.1 will be more viable in the future.

Actually I believe in DD-EX the surrounds (in 7.1) play in stereo.

I don't know about Dolby EX, or even other discs, but I have Gladiator in DTS-ES and it is 6.1. I think as Ajax says having 2 rears just provides more dispertion.