Anyone audition sierra's versus 170SE as the surround and back channels?

[dallas]

I have got the sierras up front, looking to add the rear four channels now.

I'm wondering if anyone with the sierra's up front did a A/B comparison with 170's and sierra's as the 4 surrounds, and if so, what their conclusions were.

I tried to search a bit, I couldn't find a related thread.

[curtis]

dallas....I think the differences would show up more in multi-channel music than in movies.

That said, I use 4 170's for surrounds (two SE and two classics), and along with the Sierras, I think they all work very well together for movies and music, but I do want to change my side surrounds to Sierras one day.

[dallas]

but I do want to change my side surrounds to Sierras one day.


That's what I am trying to avoid. I am trying to buy the system that I will not want to upgrade for 20 years. A lofty goal I know, but I'm capable of buying something awesome, and being content with it. I'd rather spend the money once, rather than twice.

I'm cursed with excellent hearing, and I may just have to do a in home trial to answer this question.

[curtis]

Totally understood.

For me...I know I can find a good use for the 170's if I replace them with Sierras.

[dallas]

HA! get this story. I told my wife initially that to buy the rear 4 speakers was going to be "around 750", assuming ~3xx a pair for hopefully b-stock 170's. It seems she misunderstood me and thought I meant 750 per pair. I agreed to that version of the events very quickly.

That just happens to be the price of b-stock sierra's.

So in the near future I will have a 7.1 setup of sierra's (black). More importantly, I won't be wondering the rest of my life if "I should have went with the sierra's"

[Fantom]

I can certainly understand not wanting to buy and then "re-buy." Especially if you know it will eat away at you. Might as well just spend once.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I did not even have this decision to make. I have Sierra's up front, but in my current apartment, only had room for HTM-200's for the surround (and no room at all for back surround). Thankfully, even the 200's match up decently well with the Sierra's. More like cousins than twins, but they belong in the family.

Having said that, there are times with video games or multi-ch music where I wish they were Sierra's. I did have a thought though. In the future when I have more space for a 7.1 system, perhaps there will be a Sierra-2 or something else that is somehow better than the Sierra-1. At that time I could get the latest 'n greatest for the fronts, move the Sierra-1's to side surround duty, and slide the HTM's over to surround back. Or, as Curtis said, there's always a good use for a pair of speakers somewhere. I suppose that puts me on more of a continuous upgrade path than you are looking for.

In any case, good luck on being set for 20 years. I know I couldn't go that long!