Thanks Alan
Hi punisher101,
Sir Quack and others have made the point that the QS8 quadpolar surrounds are meant to mimic the immersive surround effects equivalent to hearing 8 to 10 direct-radiating surrounds in a cinema or mixing theater (italics mine).
It would appear that the writer of the Dummies guide hasn't been in a professional Hollywood mixing theater. I have. These are quite large, seating as many as 300 or 400, with a large mixing console that straddles the middle of the theater. There are the usual rows of direct-radiating surrounds down each side wall and on the rear wall, about 8 to 10 on average.
But the "Dummies" writer doesn't understand that the delay times in much larger spaces (cinemas and mixing theaters) are much longer than those in a home theater or living room, where delay times are very short. So to imitate what happens in a large cinema, the QS8s multi-directional dispersion "sprays" sound in every direction, so that your ears receive a multitude of bounced and reverberant reflections plus the sounds that reach your ears directly from the QS8s. Add in some digital delay (all AV receivers do this), and what results is a very convincing recreation of spatial cues and larger acoustic environments.
One other smaller mixing theater I was in, Dolby Labs facility in Manhattan, which seated about 75 or so, did indeed use multi-polar surrounds quite similar to Axiom's QS8s. (For those who are curious, they were M&K. There were quite effective but no moreso than the QS8s, and much more expensive.)
Regards,
Alan
