Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Add on rear surrounds?

Hi folks,

I'm a owner of a Axiom system I bought about 3-4 years ago. I have M60 towers, VP100 center and QS4's for surrounds (and a SVS sub). I'm finally remodeling the basement in to a dedicated theater and I'm going to take advantage of my 7.1 receiver and add rear speakers. Should I add two more QS4s or maybe a couple of M3s?

The room is going to be 21x14, drywalled with carpet. Design for the theater can be viewed at the bottom of the page here: http://manntheater.blogspot.com/

Thanks for any advice or suggestions!

Steve

Steve, I just replaced my direct radiating speakers with a pair of QS4's yesterday, I really prefer the sound of the Q's back there, perhaps it may be that my room has always been acoustically challenged, but the Q's in my case gave a much more immersive surround feel. They sound great when playing SACD's also.

Steve,

I've been experimenting quite a bit with my 4 QS4s. In my 4,000 cubic foot room, I can honestly say that the rear QS4s are a waste of money. I suggest you stick with a 5.1 set-up but make provisions for a 7.1 for future-proofing.

Good luck.

At only 14 ft wide I would suggest only 6.1 as there isn't much room for the extra channel to spread out the sound any more than 1 speaker would. I am running 6.1 and noticed quite a difference from 5.1. You could always experiment with a 6.1 and 7.1 setup before finalizing and see which you like best. Borrow some speakers if need be to do the testing.

You may find more a benefit to your 7.1 if the sides were more directly to the side or slightly in front.

I had near 20ft of dead air space between my side surrounds, and my LR surround is almost like a very wide front, as the system is corner situated. The rear center speaker helped fill in the gap nicely, especially during action shots in movies. I now notice sounds from LR, RR and RC are much more defined and yet blend better during softer surround effects.

My sides are slightly to the front at close to ear level on stands, the rears are raised and mounted, they fill in everything else nicely, I can hear a fairly significant difference when the rears are off.

I guess you'll have to move the couch back and get a bigger TV.

I notice a difference between 5.1 and 7.1 and I'm glad I use 4 Qs8's. Mojo, it just appears from your pictures that your surrounds are very far away from you and maybe spread out to far. My rear Qs8's are maybe 8ft or so apart and not as far back as your pictures appear. Also, my left/right surrounds are slightly behind the front row and in front of the back row seating.