Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners QS8 on stands. Sofa against wall. Placement?

I just got my QS8's on friday and have been messing with them. I notice most advise to place the QS8's slightly forward of the listening postion.

But since I have a wall flush against my sofa it seems like the surround effect isn't eveloping but just making like a wider left/right channel? Possibly reflecting off the wall and missing the listening postion. I'm wondering if moving the stand back almost against the wall still facing the sofa would be better(without sacrificing performance)?

I don't want to mess up the wall and mount the directly to it because I might move my sofa/tv around in the room. I'm just wondering if in the case where's it's not open air behind the sofa if the QS8's are hindered by not allowing the sound to move behind it?

I've rarely seen any suggestions that the surround speakers in a 5.1 setup should be in front of the listening position. They should be at least a short distance behind, to give some "back" effect to the surround sound.

The problem is I have a wall behind me so I can't move them a short distance behind the listening position.

This is from the FAQ page:

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.

Also this link http://www.axiomaudio.com/5.1DolbySurroundSystem.html
depicts the surrounds being forward of the listening position. But it assumes there isn't a wall up against the sofa. So I'm asking if it's ok to move the QS8's perpendicular to the rear wall almost touching it to get the rear effect in this circumstance without sacrificing performance?

Yes, what you describe in your last sentence is what I was suggesting. However, in your situation an alternative that might be even better would be to set the QS8s almost flat(parallel to)against the rear wall and widely separated, possibly about a foot from the side walls.

Last night I tried you suggestions both ways. First, I watched Ghost Ship with the surrounds perpendicular but almost touching the wall. It sounded further back but not really defined or convincing rear effect. Then I watched Frailty and moved the surrounds flat (parallel) and they sounded much better. I could definitely hear more rear effect.

Now I'm thinking about moving them again, but this time at a 45 degree angle so that the inner tweeter is 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the wall so maybe the sound can travel down the wall.

Any thoughts on this idea? I'm just thinking I maybe missing some of the tweeters since they are facing away from the listening position.

Yes, after I thought about it for a while I suspected that the second arrangement might sound better. I've never tried the 45 degree arrangement. I assume you actually mean that the inner tweeter would be firing parallel to the back wall, not perpendicular as you say in your second paragraph. Experiment, of course, and see how it sounds, although my guess is that it wouldn't be better. There's no problem with some of the tweeters facing away from the listening position if they can reflect off a wall.