Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater QS4 vs QS8 surrounds for my room size?

Hi gang,

It's high time for me to upgrade from my ancient, budget-priced, low-quality surrounds --the last remnants of my old Audiosource surround decoder kit, circa early-1990s, before I got my first home theater receiver! My current AV receiver is neither recent nor fancy, a Sony STH-DR540, but it does the job.

Other than my subwoofer, I've had Axiom speakers for the rest of my current home theater set-up for several years now, and am very happy with them. I have two M3 V2 left/right speakers and a VP100 V4 for the center speaker.

Axiom recommends the QS4 for small-to-average rooms and the QS8 for average-to-large rooms, but I'm not quite sure where my room size falls within those generalized descriptions. My theater room is roughly 17 feet by 18 feet. I'm set-up simply for 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS... no 7.1 nor Dolby Atmos.

I'm guessing either pair of surrounds would work fine, but I wonder if the extra expense of the QS8s would be worth it for my room size, or if I'd be short-changing myself if I went with the somewhat-cheaper QS4s?

Think this is a how a much your money is worth to you thing … my thinking on the QS series … bigger is better …
I have QS8s and Q10s, can’t speak for the QS4. QS10 is much better IMO. Someone else will have to speak for the QS4 ->QS8 differences … although I seem to recall others saying that the QS8/QS4 were also a jump. Anyway, I’d recommend going bigger and making an offer on the refurb stock you think is reasonable… they will probably still honor the 10% black-Friday discount if you ask for it …

I had QS8v2 and moved to QS10v4 for my 5.1. Huge upgrade.

I also have M5v4OW. I'm enjoying those as my sides. I like them better for music. I sometimes switch back to QS10s for variety.

The advantage of the M5s is that you can use them as fronts if you want in maybe a different room. Or...you can use M5s up front and re-purpose the M3s as sides.

Given your receiver, my idea of M5s isn't a solid one. The QS10s are a better match.

BTW, if you like the M3v2, you'd love the M50v4. I run M50v4 exclusively for 2.1 channel music and, at times, just in 2.0. I love them!

Here's another idea. Put your M3s on the sides and get M50s for the front. They're an easy load for any receiver.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/m50-floorstanding-speakers

https://www.axiomaudio.com/arb-0306

There's a refurbished M50 in black oak.

Mojo, you sure do know how to zero in on answering the question
I guess I should be more surprised you didn’t suggest adding an EP800 or two to beef up the surrounds …

How did you know I'm upgrading from 500s to 800s for my sides?

Think you’ve been threatening that for years … have you pull’ed the trigger?

I've been considering it but the 800s would foul with the M5s when I run my QS15 configuration.