Moving up from 5.1 to 7.1

[Woochifer]

Sorry Sir TT but I was also a part of some of those earlier timbre matching discussions before you stripped me off everything. (LOL). I still maintain that timbre matching the front three is more important than breaking the bank to timbre match all the speakers. The price to value is not substantial enough. Wooch seems to see the light so why not you?

At the risk of waffling during an election year, here's my take.

It all depends on the source. In general, you'll improve your sound by going with timbre matched speakers, no matter the multichannel source. But, the degree of improvement varies a LOT. And that's where that value that you cite is measured.

With multichannel music, having timbre matched surrounds is a lot more important because most of those soundtracks get mixed with the lead instruments and vocals steered into the surround channels at levels equal to the main channels. When this is done (especially if the same sound elements are mixed into the main and surround channels simultaneously), timbre mismatches are very noticeable and distracting.

With most movies, I would say that it's not as crucial. This is simply because most of the movie soundtracks that I've heard don't do the equal level mixing into all channels that you hear more of in 5.1 music mixes. Quick fire directional effects don't highlight timbre mismatches the way that a guitar and vocals steered into the main and surround channels at equal levels will. Ambient cues don't either.

I would add though that more of the newer movie soundtracks I've heard are aggressively steering more of the sound elements into the surrounds and doing more simultaneous mixing into the main and surround channels. In movies like "Master and Commander" where this occurs, the effect with timbre matched speakers can be quite stunning. And mismatched speakers simply can't do that.

When I replaced those old Bose 301s with timbre matched Studio 20s as my surround speakers, all of my multichannel soundtracks sound noticeably better. The overall soundfield felt more cohesive in general. But, with those soundtracks where you have that aggressive steering of sounds from the mains into the surrounds, THAT'S where you really notice the difference with timbre matching. With a good soundtrack along those lines, the stability of the side imaging is rock solid, and you can now perceive depth and scale in the sound. Not all soundtracks (including most movie soundtracks) will get the maximum benefit from timbre matching, but it seems that an increasing number of soundtracks out there can.

[nick4433]

Wooch, nice recovery what with the waffling and all but you do make some excellent points. I always felt that the front three channels were very important to timbre match if not all for movies but music is another beast.
If you plan to listen to a lot of DVD-A and SACD then panning all around becomes very important and puts more emphasis on timbre matching.