Advice on mix and matching home theater speakers

[oldskoolsoulman]

I'm starting to put together a plan for my home theater in my family room. There room was already pre-wired, so I have 4 speaker openings in the ceiling, and wiring for a powered floor sub-woofer. I have a pair of Thiel 0.5, which I had for my 2ch systems, and I just love the sound and imaging of it. The question I have is whether I should:

a) Keep the Thiels, use them for the lf-rf channel, and buy say NHT, SpeakerCraft speakers for the remaining surround speakers and sub-woofer. Pretty much mix speaker brands.

b) Buy matching speakers for the all the channels.

I would like to do option 'a', but I'm not sure whether sonic-wise that would be a good choice. Comments?

Oh yeah are my requirements:

* Home theatre setting would be primarily used for watching TV (mainly sports, live music shows/programs)
* Excellent quality 2ch stereo is very important. Mainly listen to acoustic jazz and pop.

Again, any help (as well as speaker recommendations) would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[mazersteven]

Keep the Main L/C/R speakers the same and ues Speakercraft for the in-ceiling surrounds.

 

[oldskoolsoulman]

Thanks. Just of curiosity, what other l/c/r, as well as in-ceiling speakers would you recommend? I've been seeing a lot of postings about SVS and Paradigm.

 

[mazersteven]

Thanks. Just of curiosity, what other l/c/r, as well as in-ceiling speakers would you recommend? I've been seeing a lot of postings about SVS and Paradigm.

What budget for the 3 main speakers? Bookshelf or Floorstanding?

 

[3db]

I'm with Mazer. LCR speakers should be the same and use speakercraft for your surrounds.

 

[markw]

"Excellent quality 2ch stereo is very important."

while in-ceiling speakers may be adequate for HT, excellent quality 2ch stereo is not gonna happen with them, at least for the front three channels.

Keep what you have and look for a matching center or look for floorstanders or bookshelves here.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm starting to put together a plan for my home theater in my family room. There room was already pre-wired, so I have 4 speaker openings in the ceiling, and wiring for a powered floor sub-woofer. I have a pair of Thiel 0.5, which I had for my 2ch systems, and I just love the sound and imaging of it. The question I have is whether I should:

a) Keep the Thiels, use them for the lf-rf channel, and buy say NHT, SpeakerCraft speakers for the remaining surround speakers and sub-woofer. Pretty much mix speaker brands.

b) Buy matching speakers for the all the channels.

I would like to do option 'a', but I'm not sure whether sonic-wise that would be a good choice. Comments?

Oh yeah are my requirements:

* Home theatre setting would be primarily used for watching TV (mainly sports, live music shows/programs)
* Excellent quality 2ch stereo is very important. Mainly listen to acoustic jazz and pop.

Again, any help (as well as speaker recommendations) would be appreciated. Thanks!

Keep the Thiels. Use this Thiel center.

http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Site05/Pages/models/Current_Models/SCS4/SCS4_main.htm

There are advantages to using a coaxial center. If you use ceiling surrounds, of which I'm not fond of, then try and choose something that does not call attention to itself.