How important for surrounds to match fronts?

Having surrounds whose timbre closely matches that of the fronts is a pretty big deal, IMHO. The improvement in the transition from front to back is noticeable - the entire soundfield becomes more cohesive and natural.

I used Gallo Ref. 3.1s from my fronts and Gallo Dues for the Center and Surrounds. And I thought it sounded pretty good. But when I swapped out the Dues for Ref. AVs, the improvement was way more than subtle...

-RW-

It's a "nice to have" .... Not a "need to have".

Visually: matching is highly sought after for sure.
Sonically: .... Preferred / Nice to have, but not a critical "gotta have it" moment.

The rears and rear surrounds are a purely "manufactured" "fill-in" signal path sourced from the pre/processor. It's not the same as creating a seamless soundstage across the LF and RF as in two channel critical listening.

For HT, the audio differences in audio / soundtrack performance are significantly reduced ... thats why they make di-pole surround speakers for cramped listening environments without a fatal result .
For the same reasons that's why significantly lesser grade speaker cables are frequently used for the rears and surrounds. You are not going to see rears and surrounds cabled with Nordost Valhallas even though the fronts representing the critical tracks can be.

For multi-channel audio, sure... It's preferred. But ..... Unless it's a rare audio track actually recorded in the rare discrete channel ultra high-Rez PCM 7.1 format (e.g AIX records) wherein the discrete soundtracks place you on stage in the middle of the performers, the differences in audio performance are similarly nil to negligible.

For the 99+% of your audio and soundtrack listening, .... It aint gonna cripple you to select different rears and surrounds.

Thanks for the responses. I can get a pair of aerial model 5s but i have no room behind the listening area. That is why i was thinking of wall mount surrounds

Having everything match is not a bad thing and might provide a sense of comfort and insurance, but nothing wrong with mixing and matching as well as long as one is up to it and has confidence in their ability to do better.

I am a low budget home theater guy and simy run a 4.1 setup with my Focal mains and some "junk" rear channel speakers. I have obviously heard much better systems, but I don't feel like I am missing anything. I would have a matched center channel, but simply didn't have the room in the cabinet and have been happy with the ghost center effect.

With stereo audio the music is all you have, but with movies there is a significant visual distraction making the audio a smaller part of the overall experience. Great movies can suck you in no matter the speakers or TV just like great music can suck you in on any system, but I think movies can suck you in easier.