i was talking about what shawn said. i too did not have the money to buy everything at once. i bought my mains, then a couple of years later bought my center and surrounds, then later (not long) added a sub, then i added some more subs :-). however i got all the same brand of speakers (not sub, which is not dependent on brand similarities) and from the same line. this was over years. so as jt said, you can pick up one part of a system and then later add the other parts because speakers do not change very quickly. granted sometimes, a line will disappear or be significantly changed, but generally speaking a line of speakers has a pretty long longetivity and if an improvement is made that is drastic it will be released in a differnt line all together, with the original still being produced. i will say that by the time i added my center and surrounds, they were being discontinued. and now while there is a similar line that im sure would complement my setup, there is not an exact match for what would be my 6th and 7th channels so i have been hesitant to get them. however, the relationship between the center and fronts is most important, because most of the sound comes from them so you would be able to tell more differences if they were different. surrounds are effects which tend not to suffer from being a little different than the fronts.

the tonal qualities of different kinds of tweeters is why it is typical to stick with the same brand and line of speakers. however while this assures even sound (timbre matched as well), it can be achieved by other means.

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