Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater speaker match

This is a great info forum. I have a pair of Infinity large-bookshelf speakers which were highly rated in Consumer Reports 11 years ago. I would like to continue using them in some capacity and just purchased a Yamaha RXV-5440 receiver. To create a home theatre for low volumes in a small room on a budget some of my ideas were:
1) Purchase only a better center channel(Your model suggestions??).
2) Add a center channel and two rear surrounds.
3) Purchase three new front speakers and use the old speakers for rear surround.
4) Your opinions.

Thanks,

Option "3"--using the Infinity pair as rear surrounds--is your best option. Timbral matching of the three front channel speakers (the musical balance should, ideally, be identical in the three front channels) is essential in home theater systems, so the sonic character of dialogue voices and instruments doesn't vary across the front soundstage. Buying three front-channel speakers is an excellent place to begin. And while the timbral match of the surround speakers to the front speakers is nevertheless important, you can use the Infinitys as surrounds for the time being. After a time, you may find the timbral mismatch of the Infinitys quite annoying and want to upgrade to surrounds that match your main and center-channel speakers.

Alan Lofft
Resident Expert