Am I crazy to build a HT around old speakers?

[phillyguy]

I just bought an new A/V receiver (Denon AVR 1082 (3802 twin) on a closeout from Tweeter) which has breathed new life into my old Mission 707's and Infinity RS sub. They are both 15 to 18 years old, and were recently refoamed. I have been wanting to buy new speakers, and have narrowed my choices to the Energy C5's and the Kef Q5's, each with their associated center, surrounds, and sub. (willing to spend between $1600 to $1800 for everything) I would audition some Missions, but can't find them in Pa. since Denon dropped their line. Still, I find myself considering trying to find a matching center and surrounds for my old Missions. Common sense tells me to just buy new, and enjoy my old stuff in another room because it isn't a smart move to build a system around older speakers. I also figure my old stuff may not sound as good as I think when I listen to them next to some new speakers. I would say we listen to music about 75% of the time, but want the option of DVD-A and SACD in the future and well as movies.

Like to hear from those of you who have tried to match center,surrounds, etc w/ their older stuff. Would you do it again?

[RGA]

I don't know your speakers but just because they're old doesn't mean anything. I would personally run the receiver in phantom mode with my speakers rather than by 5 sepakers of the Energy C series or their competitors JUST so I could have a voice matched center channel. If Home theater is all you care about then that would be a different matter.

But I would rather spend on 2 good speakers and some rears(less important to match) and run it in phantom. I have never heard a surround package under 2k(not including sub) that I would rather watch movies or listen to music over two good fron speakers...And I don't even run in phantom mode so the signal is compressed. I have over 150 DVDs and not one movie do I have trouble hearing the dialogue and in virtuall all cases the front pans left to right seamlessly, which is not always a trait of most three front speaker set-ups. The trick is you need a quality amp and speaker set-up that images well. If two speakers are not doing this then look at th speakers and the amp.

All the said the Energy C5 is pretty nice, but it all depends on how good those Missions were. I have not been generally impressed with slim line speakers using metal tweeers, the have the pyrotechnics down but the smoothness and tonal accuracy is sketchy and largely fatiguing to my ear.