Hi There,

Does anyone else have this same setup? I have a 5.1 system and want to add the back channels to be ready for blu-ray or HD-DVD. My couch is about 6" from my back wall so I can recline it, very small living room. Anyway, I want to add a set of Axiom's and was wondering if anyone here could offer any advice other than I'm crazy! I know this isn't the best setup, but it's all I have to work with...

Hi Hitman,

With that setup, the extra two rear surrounds may add little to the overall sense of envelopment if you've used QS8s or QS4s as the side surrounds. Try a good 5.1 setup first.

If your room is large, adding the two surrounds at the back for 7.1 will certainly give you better surround envelopment for other listeners in different seats but in smaller rooms, the gain may be marginal at best. Of course you can always try it and see if there's a significant gain. Use a couple of stepladders to temporarily position the extra surrounds behind the couch and do some comparisons of 5.1 vs. 7.1.

Regards,

I've got the same setup... you can notice a difference between 5.1 & 7.1 but is it worth the cost? Probably not. However, if you are like me you won't feel satisfied until you get the 7.1 Plus one day they will be truly awesome in the dedicated screening room right?

Its not fair to say that they are not beneficial. What you should say is that the Qs8s are sooooo good in the 5.1 configuration that there is little room for improvement in the 7.1 configuration. But it is really cool to hear all of the speakers work in concert when tie-fighters sonically emerge from back left to front right. Just don't expect a dramitc improvement. There isn't room for it.

Neb

Welcome Hitman!

I have roughty the same situation. I have a speaker on order so I can put one directional speaker on the floor behind the couch firing up. This should give me 6.1. We'll see if it works.

I have a 7.1 with couch on back wall, it works not the best but it works. I am soon starting on a media room but for now I have a 14W by 18L living room and its opened to the kitchen and dining room. I am very happy, I know it will get better when I finish my basement. I have the side surrounds up high and the back about ear level about 4 ft off the sides of couch. This is the only way I could set it up because of the room.

I have to agree with Alan, I have about 12 feet from the back of my sitting area to the wall and the extra channel helps fill that area but I can't see much point in 6.1/7.1 in a smaller area of where all 4 surrounds are right next to each other.

I have a 7.1 system with the couch on the back wall. I found I needed to move the couch forward so the listening point was 3-4 feet off the wall to get the most out of the rear speakers. I also found I needed to move the side surrounds slightly forward of the listening position. This helped smooth the transition from the strong 4 speaker rear sound stage to the front sound stage.

I’ll also mention that my room is wider then it is deep so the rear surrounds help keep rear sounds behind me while the side surrounds are 10 feet away on either side.

Let me just join in and (also agree with Alan and) say that the difference between 5.1 and 7.1 (especially with the QS8s or 4s) is prety minimal when the set-up involves a couch right up against the wall.

That said, if the side walls are far apart, it might help to focus the panning effects, especially when coupled with a rear matrixing software liek Dolby Pro Logic IIx.

I have my rear speakers above the couch on the back wall. They would fire right over my head, and probably be heard after their first reflection on the front wall as sound coming from the front... To fix this, I point the speakers straight up. They bounce off the ceiling and hit the listening area more directly. The sound is still quite diffuse and "feels" more like its coming from the rear than the ceiling. I like this set-up, but would be perfectly happy to get rid of them.

At the end of the day, if you're going to buy them no matter what - then have at it -a it certainly wont wreck anything. ai If you're on a budget, think about spending your money elsewhere. There's so little information that gets sent to the speakers anyway that they mostly pull double duty with the side surrounds anyway on most discs...

I wonder about mounting the QS4/8's sideways - that is, with the tweeters facing up and down and the mid/woofers facing sideways. That might get you a bit of directivity on the couch with a touch of 'diffusion'. What do you think?