Rear center channel and surrounds (1 Viewer)

[Chris Trot]

I was wondering how important matching the rear surrounds and the rear center channel with the rest of my system is. I have JBL S38's as my fronts and a JBL S-center, but is it important that I stick to JBL or doesn't it really matter too much. Also, if I do have to stick to JBL does the series of the speakers have to match as well, and in addition, is a rear center even that important or worthwhile. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[Michael Mathius]

Chris:
The general consensus around here is to have your speakers matched.
A rear center or two rears is needed for 6.1 or 7.1 respectively. I have a 7.1 setup which rocks when playing movies with this format.

 

[Mike Strassburg]

Matching across the front is more important IMO, and not as critical in the back as not as much sound is produced there. Actually about 75% of the sound comes from the CC, so be glad you got the S-center as it does a good job.

My old set-up was JBL G500's with an S-center across the front and 2 no name towers for surrounds with 2 small KLH monitors in the back. Sounded very good for what it was.

If $$$ is tight you could look into the smaller N series for the surrounds/back center. Pick some up at BestBuy to try out and return them if you don't like the sound.

Good luck...Mike