Should all the surrounds be the same ?

[Charles D]

I am still trying to decide which speakers to get.. I am pretty sure i will end up with 3 340se's across front. my question is should the 4 surround speakers be the same as in all 200's or all 170se's ? originally I was thinking of 200's due to space and being flush mountable, now I have given some thought to get the 170se's for the side surrounds and the 200's for the surround backs.

Then I keep thinking for the price differance I should just get all 170se's for surrounds, the main problem is space, my room is not that big. but I am betting it would sound pretty cool.

anyone here with the 170 side and 200 rear arrangment to give some input ??

thanks

[Jicbulk]

I went through the same thought process....

Ended up with B-Stock 170 Classics for all of the surrounds - James (at Ascend) advised that all of the Surrounds should match, although technically all of Ascend's speakers are timbre-matched.

The advice given to me was "if you primarily are interested in home-theater, then the 200s will sound great, but if you play a lot of multi-channel music, then the 170s will offer clearly better sound."

Unfortunately the speakers just arrived today(!) so I haven't listened to them yet. I'll let you know.

[Jorge59]

If you use three 340's across the front, you will be pleased even without anything in the back...

Anyway, the HTM-200 is an awesome speaker and will do the surround job nicely.

I had the opposite experience: I had 170 mains and later bought a pair 200 surrounds. So, I thought I didn't need to have bought the 170's for HT. I'm considering moving the 170 for the other stereo system and push the 200 for the HT mains.

[Charles D]

thanks for the input guys I will prob end up with 170SE's for all surrounds. I think the 200's are prob a fine speaker with good quality but i dont want it to ever be lacking even if i crank the volume up for a while. I also like the idea of having basicly matching drivers all around.

I prob will get more into the high res music when I actually get things set up how i want. also want to be ready for demanding soundtracks for future stuff
TrueHD and who knows what else the new higher capacity disks will bring ( if they ever come out already

all my speakers i have now have 8" woofers , fronts have dual 8's floorstanding towers. ( altec lansing, from when they actually made real speakers, hehe ) I simply dont have room for floorstanders the way the room will be set up. so if the ascends sound as good ( I'm hoping better ) as what i have now i will be happy.