"much ado about nothing"
Surround sound is severly overated IMHO
Priority
1rst - Fronts
2nd - Center ( epecially if youwatch TV or Movies) -for vocal
3rd - Subwoofer - for the low frequncies espcially gunshots, explosions, and dinosaurs walking
4th - surrounds - they enhance and add a little bit of 3 dimension on stage presence.
Spend as follows
Fronts -almost 1/2 $$
Center - match fronts for timbre ( seamless sound) 1/5 $ you can go with a phantom center with good fronts, especailly if you primary listening is music only.
Subwoofer - almost 1/5 $
Surrounds -whatever is left 1/10 $$
Against just my opinion your thoughts and others may be different! Some say to make all speakers the same except sub, if you have the bucks $$$ and that sounds very good also it just costs a lot more for that ssymptotic level of sound improvement -- but hey, who says audioholics are practical