silly HT front/rear matching question?

So what's your silly question? This is a sensible one.

Surrounds that are too different in sound from the main speakers will sound out-of-place (and, in particular, stand out more than surrounds ought to). There's a tendency among manufacturers to give all of their speakers a similar timbre. That's partly by design, because they know HT customers will want to mix and match, and partly just a function of the fact that whoever designs their speakers aims for a certain sound.

There's a good chance that the speakers you have in mind will sound fine together. That said, you cannot count on it happening. The only way to be sure is to take a pair of the surrounds home on trial (or with a money-back guarantee from the dealer), and see how they sound in your system. (Note: It is always important to try speakers out in your room, since speaker-room interaction matters a lot.)

Yes, you should do just fine with lesser speakers in the rear. Enjoy.

Thanks KR, Bomarc, and Dopogue. On the one hand it seemed like it should work okay, but what scared me was when I saw the HT packages recommmended by speaker manufacturers, they always, without fail, suggested matching their better front speakers with their better surrounds, never with their lower end surrounds. Thanks again.
Marie

Well, jeez, Marie, of course they want you to buy the better ones. They're trying to get as much of your money as they can. Why is it that, when it comes to audio, normally sensible people miss the bleeding obvious?

The better your sources are and the more multi-channel music that you listen to, the more you would notice the differences between matched and mismatched speakers. Other than that, i would agree with Kr4. Pay the most attention to matching the center and mains as closely as possible. If you are going to use this in a relatively small room and have the mains placed relatively close together, skip the center channel and invest that money into better L-R speakers. Sean
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