would it be a bad idea to use different surrounds that dont match my fronts?

Question

these are my fronts http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/rb-51.aspx

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/540249163

Answer 1

No doubt, you have the RC-52 center channel. The Klipsch surrounds that you are considering should be similarly voiced as that pretty much all Klipsch speakers are voiced the same and that's what you want in a home theater system, so you're okay.

H a p p y
H o m e
T h e a t e r i n g !

Answer 2

There are two answers to this -- the theoretical, audiophile answer and the anecdotal, real-world answer. When I was a high-end A/V salesman I used to tell customers that it was important to get that seemless match through all the channels and that the only way to accomplish this was to buy rear speakers that were designed (with the same drivers) to match the mains. Nevertheless, experience has taught me that if you have a good reason (such as an economic one) for using rear speakers that do not "match" your mains it is a valid option. You really won't notice the "hand off problem" unless your rears have a very different tone (say, bright vs. mellow) than your front stage. A few years ago I read an article in an A/V magazine that actually recommended brighter speakers in the rear! Historically, Klipsch speakers have a reputation for being a little on the bright side and yours do have titanium tweeters so you would probably want to go with rear speakers that had metal tweeters if possible. I would say get the speakers designed to go with your front stage if it is feasible to do so. Otherwise, do not worry yourself over this too much as long as your rears are good quality speakers. You really don't want to dilute the quality of your experience with cheap rear speakers.

Answer 3

My system is a mix of different speakers of various brands and I can report that I've had no real problems with seriously mismatched sound. I have also heard quite a few systems with "matched" speakers and even they did not sound exactly matched. Therefore, I don't feel that the speakers must all be the same brand and from similar years of manufacture. The main thing is to try to get the system to sound "tonally" similar the whole way around. Even that will never be perfect ,regardless of whether your speakers are matched or not ,because rooms have a BIG affect on the overall sound.

Answer 4

some people would never do this if there lifes depended apon it, but then there are things call budgets and relizing that spending a good amout of money of the fount 2 speakers is inportant to music listeners

I like 2.0 stero so I spent my money there, and my sounrds I used a pair of Klipsch with horn tweeters, what that did is disperce the sound thoughout

yea it is not perfect, but I still get ton of wows from people

but these speakers match really well, you should crank

Answer 5

The surround speakers are mainly used for sound effects and do not have to match your front speakers which handle most of the music and dialog.As long as you can increase or decrease the volume there should be no problem.

Answer 6

Ideally you'd want all 5 speakers to match exactly, especially if you are going to be listening to 5.1 music (ie.SACD or DVD-Audio)

But you can get away with different models in the surrounds for movies, but it would be nice to at least stick with the same brand with similar tweeters and maybe even mid-range.