My brother just hung a pair of M3 on walls in his computer room. As we were looking at how awesome they looked and listening to how great they sounded, this fantastic idea hit me. I could use them as surrounds in our media room. The surrounds are on the back wall and face out so direct firing shouldn't be a problem.

has anyone used these as surrounds???????

I have not, but logic tells me they should make very good surrounds.

Just to clarify though...By "surrounds" are you talking about a 5.1 setup where optimally, they should be to the side of your listening position, not behind, or are you talking about rears in a 7.1 setup.

They will do a good job in both places. A lot of folks here prefer to use a more enveloping type speaker for the side surrounds, like the quad firing QS4s or QS8s. However, a direct radiating speaker does quiet well as a rear speaker in a 7.1 setup.

In short, I'm a big believer in using what you have on hand as long as your happy but if your looking for the optimal solution, then there is lots more advice to be had here from the experts.

I had used M3's as rear surrounds and in my smaller room it added no benefit. The sound character of the M3 also didn't blend as well with the QS8 and front speakers.

I love the M3 speakers but as 2 channel or 2.1. I would like to try them with 3 across the front in a second setup. I will play with that as some point as I have M3 outdoors and M3 on walls boxed up in the bassment.

As a side when I switched to QS8's for side and back once again in my smaller room the rears didn't add much but 7 channel music sounded better than with the M3. QS8 sides are wonderful and really have the ability to envelope you and produce sound from behind you.

I just redid my bassment theater flipping the room and left the rear QS8's in place to use as front "Presence" speakers for my Yamaha. I'm still playing with the new settings to utilize the "Presence" speakers and I'm not sold on them yet. The one nice thing is the Dialogue Lift option that will use the "Presence" speakers along with the center channel to ancor the center on the screen.

Flipping the room was the best decision though as it gives me a wider sound stage and running 5.1 sounds so much better than the old setup in 5.1 or 7.1

I will try to post some picks of V1 and V2 of my setup later this weekend in another post.

In my media room, the only surrounds I have are on the rear wall. I have 2 couches in the room and rear wall surrounds just seemed to be the best fit behind the rear couch.

I thought putting M3s on the rear wall would work good and sound great. I wonder if they would work and sound as good as QS8s.

What speakers are you currently running in the room and which are you thinking of replacing? Will you be using them as surrounds or multi channel music?

If surrounds are priority I would look at the QS8 as they're excellent for both surround and multichannel.

Don't get me wrong though, I love M3's.

I'm running Swan R3s as surrounds right now. They are probably fine speakers but I just sold my Swan 6.2 fronts and I just have this negative feel for Swans. Probably not fair to the speakers but so be it!!!

I've had the QS4s & QS8s and both are great speakers. I just really like the way the M3s look which of course is not the primary reason to buy speakers. But thought they would look great on the rear wall and because of the way the room is setup, I figured they would sound as good as the QS8s or the Swans. Maybe not though.................

They would be used 90% for movies and occasionally for multichannel music. Most all of my music is 2 channel.

IMO, if the M3s have enough room to give good dispersion then they would be as good as the QS series, just with a slightly different tone to them, less noticable/slightly recessed midrange compared to the M60s.

Way back when I used M3s as surrounds before buying a pair of QS4s. They did just fine in that role, although it's almost a shame to relegate them to surround duty only. They're awesome speakers.

Frank, long time no see; welcome back!

Thanks muchly!

Yes I agree. I have a v2 pair in our game room and love them--more importantly, my wife notices a huge difference between them and the TV speakers . My brother bought a pair of on wall M3s and I love the way they look and think they'd be great for surrounds in our media room. Although the QS8s would probably be better for surround duty, I just like the look of the on walls.

Wow, an old hand indeed.
No posts for..uh, 6 years?

Change in lifestyle?
Brief foray into a Paradigm perhaps?
(yes Peter, that is another play on words, they call them puns)

Welcome back

If I were clever, I would say that I swore off web forums until they captured Bin Laden. Sadly, I'm not that clever.

If only the reasons were home-theater related. However, 'twas the usual...new city, new house (in a constant state of needing work), new job(s), second kid...you know the deal.

All too well.