After much research, here is my setup:

Ascend 170s for Front L&R

Ascend 340c for center

SVS HB-10 for subwoofer

HK AVR-240 receiver

And I have decided instead of monopole/direct surrounds, I'm going to get the quadpoles from Axiom.

My question - which ones?

Room size is 13.5' along the side walls, 18' on the front and rear walls (where the sofa and TV is, respectively.) Ceiling height is 7 feet. Sofa is only 1 foot from the rear wall.

Would the QS-4s work just fine, or will I kick myself later for not getting the QS-8s? An extra $100 isn't going to break the bank, but if I don't need the extra oomph of the 8s, then I'll get the 4s. I don't listen to music or DVDs at a very loud volume.

Thanks!

I've never listened to the Qs4's, but I do love my 4 Qs8's That is a pretty good sized room, you might want to get 8's.

I'd also order from the Axiom outlet which would save you 50 bucks.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/factoryoutlet.html

You're looking at 6-7 feet from the surrounds to the center of the listening area. I think QS4s would be fine.

I'm assuming the HK240 can handle separate crossover freqs for each of the speakers (is the 240 really new or really old ?).

The 240 is brand new - the upgraded model of the AVR 235.

http://www.harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?Region=USA&Country=US&Language=ENG&cat=REC&prod=AVR%20240&sType=C

Don't understand your technical terminology - would you mind looking over the specs to see if it does what you say I need?

Link Police

http://www.harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?Region=USA&Country=US&Language=ENG&cat=REC&prod=AVR%20240&sType=C

John is referring to bass management, and setting the crossover for Low Frequencies that get routed to the sub. Most receivers allow you to only set one crossover, usually 60-80hz for all speakers. Any signal below that setting gets routed to the sub. On HK receivers, most of them allow you to set seperate crossover settings for each speaker. This is useful as some speakers will play lower than others.

Randy

Cool, I didn't know they had a 240 out now.

For anyone interested, here's a clickable link :

http://www.harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?Region=USA&Country=US&Language=ENG&cat=REC&prod=AVR%20240&sType=C

I took a quick look and confirmed that the 240 DOES have the ability to set different crossover frequencies for main, center, surround and surround back speakers.

That is the good answer

It's interesting -- they upgraded the 135, 235 and 335 but not the higher models. I'm guessing they brought the whole line up to the same level of EZ-set functionality...

EDIT -- Randy beat me again ;(

Gotcha - thanks! Do you see anything in the manual for the 240 that says it will allow the individual crossovers?

>>You're looking at 6-7 feet from the surrounds to the center of the listening area. I think QS4s would be fine.

Whoops, you have the TV and sofa on the long (18') wall, don't you. That means 9' from surrounds to listening area... probably still OK for QS4 as long as the volumes aren't too loud but if you think you are likely to crank the volume occasionally you might want to think about the QS8s.

Am I reading it wrong or does that 240 only have 50W per channel? Doesnt that seem a little low for a $600 reciever?

>>Do you see anything in the manual for the 240 that says it will allow the individual crossovers?

I didn't go through the manual (I'm on dial-up, boo hoo) but the settings worksheet clearly had separate crossover settings for each of the 4 speaker sets. My only concern was if the 240 was a really old model -- anything current is going to have the fancy bass management.

>>Am I reading it wrong or does that 240 only have 50W per channel? Doesnt that seem a little low for a $600 reciever?

HK receivers are rated "all channels driven simultaneously, all frequencies" while most receivers are rated for 2 channels and often at 1 KHz. If you test any of the "more powerful" receivers under the same conditions you get about the same results. Here's an old, but interesting link :

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3401/ratevsac.htm

HK is very concervative on their ratings. This actually is a good thing. Many receivers ratings are misleading, and are not full bandwidth rated. A 50watt/channel HK will blow the doors off of most 100+ rated no name brands.

Wolf, welcome. I took a look and at p.27 of the 240 manual you'll find a discussion of the "Quadruple" crossover provision which allows setting different crossover points for four different groups(mains, center, side surrounds, back surround)of speakers. This is a plus factor, but keep in mind that many Axiom users have found the typically suggested 80Hz crossover to work well for all speakers. You can experiment.

New, the 50 watt rating, as John pointed out, is with all channels driven. The rating shown for the more common(and more realistic for home use)two channels driven spec is 65 watts. In addition, HK conservatively takes the rating from a lower point on the distortion curve than the distortion percentage shown. The rating could probably be around 75 watts if this wasn't done. Amplifier power ratings are true, as the FTC regs require, and must show among other specs the bandwidth(generally shown as full 20-20KHz)and distortion max at power levels up to the maximum. Receiver/amp power ratings should be among the least of concerns in audio.

Thank you, everyone, for your help and advice. Going to email Axiom and see what they say re: which model to get based on my needs and room size.

Go with the 8's......I use them with my Ascend 170's in a 13'x 18' room, with a 65w x 3 channels driven Outlaw 1050 receiver and they sound fantastic! I'm only sitting 5-6' from each one and have no problems with too much oomph!!

Also, the crossover is globally set at 80hz and the 8's sound great with that.

I have no experience w/ the QS4s, but i can tell you that the speaker I am most impressed with from Axiom (that I own) are the QS8s.

They're GREAT surrounds.

Bridgman,

Maybe they are about to turn the 435 into a 440? That means close out on that model and $avings. Tempting.

Greg

Hi!
I'm sure you're not going to regret that extra $100, you'll be amazed by the results!

Regards,
Octavian

As you stated since $100 is not going to break the bank then why not get the best and be done with it. That's the logic I used when purchasing my speakers since I would always be wondering how the QS8's would sound if I bought the QS4's.