The Audio guy was speaking the truth, Imo it is one of the most important rules for good surround sound, the CLR should all be timbre matched. It not as important for the surrounds but Imo critical for the fronts.
For a time I was using the Aperion 533vac as my center channel and to me it sounded real good, I didn't realize how much I had been missing until I replaced it with the VP150, everything panned and blended much better, it was really a whole different experience.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.