For a 5.1 or 7.1 HT setup should all the speakers be matched. (i.e. same manufacturer and same line)? The manufacturer of my front speakers makes a 5.1 package that they claim 'match' the fronts I have. Currently by surround and center speakers are from a different manufacturer of my fronts.

Thanks
TPS

It does help to have matched speakers across the front three channels as they represent one continous soundstage. If you use the same companies speakers and drivers you're less likely to get noticable timbre differences between the speakers. However, placement of the speakers can also change their sound, so be careful. Ideally, you should try to get all the tweeters at about the same height or at least pointed at the same place.

If you match your surrounds, you may get better front to back pans for the same reason as above. It isn't as noticable to the overall sound if they're not matched with the front soundstage.

I'd suggest sticking as closely to the matched, full-range speaker concept as your room, budget, spouse, etc. will allow. All the standards organizations I know of, with the exception of THX, specify asuch systems. And while a good deal of surround production is still being done via "speaker-on-a-stick" systems, facilities are installing matched, full-range systems, seemingly, as soon as finances allow. So it stands to reason that the best results will most likely be gleaned from duplicating the environment in which the creative decisions were made.

That being said, do the best you can. I strongly suggest avoiding di/bipolar surrounds, though. I think that as more music is released in surround, we'll want diffuse surrounds less and less. There are always going to be those who see them as more than ambience channels, so who knows what will end up back there (as any veteran/victim of quad will tell you). So careful planning and acquisition now will significantly increase the longevity of your system.

In my experience, matching the center to the mains makes a BIG difference. For a while I was using a center (NHT Audiocenter 2) of higher quality than the mains (Advent Heritage). The timbre difference during pans was obvious and significantly detracted from the spatial illusion.

I agree with others in this forum who mention that the rears don't seem to make nearly as much difference - most movies don't use the rears much and virtually never for voices.

Many movies and music videos on DVD seem to put most of the acoustic energy into the center channel. While bass management can help, in my experience musical material on DVD is best served by the best center channel you can afford, with the best LF extension. I went one step beyond and got a *pair* of "bookshelf" speakers (Celestion A1) that match my mains (Celestion A3) and use both, wired in series, as a center. I have yet to see a dedicated center that can match this sound, and the pair of bookshelf speakers is much less likely to go obsolete.