Will HTM200's add much as surrounds?

I have 340's for L/C/R, and like most people here, am extremely pleased with them. For surrounds (2 sides and 2 back) I've been using some 'left over' Inf Primus 150's. I don't find anything seriously wrong with the 150's in this role, but that may of course just be because I haven't experienced anything better. What are your thoughts? Would replacing the 4 150's with 4 HTM-200's make a noticeable difference (in HT, my major interest)? Or do the surrounds play such a minor role that it wouldn't be a significant upgrade? Thanks for any experience any of you may have had in this regard.

I have the same front set-up as you and I will be replacing my Altec Lansing 75's with 200's this fall. From everything I've read (not heard), which is a bunch, I expect the 200's to match the 340's better than my AL 75's. I'm not sure how much improvment I'll get with movies but with music I'm expecting it will be noticable. Not night and day but a more seamless transition.
I'll be moving the 75's to the bedroom so they won't go unused.

David

Watched Master & Commander the other night. The HTM-200s performed wonderfully. I never really noticed before as I've been consumed with system calibration and sub placement previous to that. I believe the simple fact they've never called attention to themselves as lacking speaks volumes.

If your Infinitys are half-decent (I've never heard them), I'd guess for HT you may not notice a huge difference. I compared 170s vs 200s (with 340 LCR) & thought I noticed a small difference, but only with multichannel music. Honestly, in a true blinded test, I doubt I'd notice that same difference though.

FWIW, when I emailed DaveF about what to get as surround to complement the 340s, he said they're all timbre-matched well. But, the difference b/w the 340 vs 170 is smaller than the difference b/w 340 vs 200. Not sure if that translates into noticeable differences for HT use though. FYI, I went with 170s, but I listen to at least 50% music (incl SACD).

I guess, all you can do is try a pair and do your own blind test. If you notice a difference and like them, then order the second pair.

Thanks you guys for all your reponses. I decided to go ahead and get 4 (2 pair) of the HTM-200's for my 2 side-surrounds and 2 rears; the Inf Primus 150's have gone to Craigslist! (Already sold one pair, for only $10 less than I paid.) The 200's will arrive next week.

I'm not really sure that there will be that much difference for surround duty, though the 200's certainly are better speakers; and I wanted to get this settled once and for all! And the 200's are considerably smaller than the Primus 150's, which made my wife very supportive of the investment.

I would also like to thank Dave for all his advice and help; as always, the Ascend folks are unbelievable!

Good choice. Me thinks you will like 'em. Aesthetics and WAF are a big part of the equation.

For any of you that might be interested, Dave had some very useful advice about mounting the 2 pair of 200's for my situation. Because of my room layout, both the side surrounds and the rears need to be right above a door frame; this means the bottom of the speaker will be 16.5" from the ceiling (and ~ 7 ft above the floor). The side-surrounds about ~7-8 ft away, and the rears 3-4 ft. Dave's recommendation is to mount all 4 of them horizontally, with the tweeter at the bottom; the top of the speakers will then be about 10" from the ceiling, and they will be angled slightly downward. Since the 200's are reported to have very wide dispersion along their long axis, this excellent horizontal dispersion should work very well for creating the 'enveloping' sound one wishes from surrounds. [Other speakers are 340's for the L/C/R, a SVS PB10-ISD sub, all driven by a Pio 1014.]