Hi all,
I'm looking for speakers for my new Pioneer VSX1014TXK receiver. I'm thinking M50ti's and VP100, hows that sound??
I have a great sub already and I'm looking into ceiling speakers for surrounds.

Thanks!!

A few questions if you don't mind... how big is your room, is it mostly HT or a movie/music mix, if music how loud do you like to play and what kind 'o music ?

Most people here will try to talk you out of ceiling mounted surrounds, for some very good reasons

Okay, the room is 15X16 with 10ft ceilings. The rear of the listening area opens to a kitchen. It will be used 50/50 music(Rock)/movies. I realize the ceiling speakers are not optimal, but there is no wall behind the listening area and speakers stand would not work(wife).

All hail the Axiom Full Metal Bracket.

Real speakers hanging from the ceiling. Voila.

If she doesn't like that idea, Ray3 here will make the suggestion to sell the wife.

Bren R.

M50 + VP100 sounds like a great combination. You probably wouldn't want smaller speakers 'cause nobody listens to good rock with the volume down

Remember that surrounds are supposed to be on the side walls, not behind... don't suppose that helps ?

Sheba, welcome. Just speaking generally, the M50s are fine speakers which your 1014 would be more than adequate to drive, and you'd almost certainly be very happy with them. If you mean surround speakers that actually would be mounted in the ceiling, unless there's some reason that it has to be that way you'd be able to get better sound with speakers(e.g. QS4s) mounted high on(but not in)the side walls. The lack of a wall immediately behind wouldn't be a problem.

A little hard to explain, but the side walls would not work. The left side is okay, but the right is a sliding glass door, if I mounted a speaking on that side wall, it would be too far forward or too far backward, because of the the sliding glass door. Besides, the wife is very anti rear speaker. My only other option would be to take out the rear speakers during a movie and put them on stands, then put them away after the movie, a REAL pain in the but-tox. I guess I could kick the wife out .

And she is not for sale..............she's FREEEEE!!

Are you saying that you could mount surrounds on the side wall but they would have to be a few feet back from your normal listening position ? That would be fine, assuming there is a place to mount the left side speaker as well.

We're just trying to gently push you towards "real" surround speakers because the performance difference is significant and the the price difference is probably pretty small. Think about getting speaker and grill colours which pretty much disappear on the walls -- people normally get black grills for the front because they look good but pick some really wussy colours for the surrounds so they blend into the wall. QS4s are not very big, BTW.

Howsabout QS4s mounted TO the ceiling with FMBs? Aren't there a few posters with that setup?

While it is generally recommended that dipolar surrounds be place directly to the side of the listening area, Axiom surrounds (QS4 and QS8) are quadpolar rather than dipolar. They tend do be very forgiving when it comes to placement.

From the Axiom FAQ:

Where should I place my surround speakers?
Ideally, surround speakers should be either wall-mounted or stand-mounted to either side of the couch or primary listening area, from one to six feet higher than seated listeners' ears, and slightly forward or rearwards of the listening area if you wish. Axiom's Quadpolar surrounds are especially versatile and can yield excellent performance with stand or wall-mounting to the rear as well as at side locations. (see our dedicated stands for the QS Surround speakers in the Store). Rear center speakers for 6.1 and 7.1 installations are intended to go on the rear wall at about the same height as the surround speakers.

Most all of us live in the real world where speaker placement, due to many "real world" factors, is less than ideal. You will find that the forum members have their surrounds mounted in a variety of ingenious places, including hanging from the ceiling on the FM brackets, mounted on rear walls, or mounted high, and/or greatly to the rear on the side walls, etc.

Hi, Sheba

Welcome! I can only add one thing-and that's to answer only what's my opinion on one part of your question: "I'm thinking M50s...hows that sound?"

I think they sound great!!

I can't talk about the VP100, as I'm currently, and have been for years, been using an inverted M3 as center.

The M3s are why I have M50s-when I needed larger speakers, I went for the speakers I was most familiar with; my beloved M3s!!

Rich.