Choosing centre and rears question

Back in November I finally succumbed and got a couple of better stereo speakers - my hi-fi store made me an offer I couldn't refuse - over 30% off the B&W 730.

Now my question - can I use the speakers from the cheaper ie 600 series, for my centre and surrounds? The 700s are a bit dear, and I've already strained the budget, even with the discount, to get the 730s. Would the 600 series match the 700 in terms of timbre and tonality?

Gratefull for any and all suggestions.

Moving your 600's to the rear shouldn't be a problem, since these are used mostly for effects. The center may however be noticeable. You will only know by hooking it up and see if you can tell a difference in timbre. With some receivers you can equalize the center channel to try to overcome any mismatch. If however you can tell there's a mismatch, then just use your fronts with the center switched off and the receiver will send this signal to the mains. You may even prefer listening with the center off. With it On, the treble frequencies can get cut to the mains and are sent to the center. Something you may not want if you have kick ass mains.

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Originally Posted by Wireworm5

You may even prefer listening with the center off. With it On, the treble frequencies can get cut to the mains and are sent to the center. Something you may not want if you have kick ass mains.

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I've never heard of this. Who does this and is it done by DPLII, DTS Neo6, or by certain manufacturers monkeying around with the signal?

BTW, to the poster: If you can't tell the difference between the 600 series cc and the 700 series, get the cheaper one. Ideally, you want your front stage timbre matched so any panning is seemless (it also helps if you eventually go hi-rez). However, when the 7's were designed, they became much closer in voicing to the 6's IMO while the new Nauts are even farther away. Your ears will dictate how wide you'll have to open your wallet.

Nice speakers btw, enjoy the music.

I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this. I have yet to purchase a receiver (considering a Marantz or a Harmon Kardon - don't know which is best). However, don't want to overpay for the surround speakers.

The 703s I just love. Word of warning to any body else who buys them. The one's I auditioned in the shop were already run in, and although I really wanted to like another, cheaper brand, I just kept coming back to these - mainly because of their great clarity and imaging. I could hear every word of the songs I was listening to, and there was no muddying or blurring of the sound. In additioning, they had a deep, clean and tight bass. However, when mine arrived and I hooked them up, I thought I had made a tremendous blunder. They just sounded so hard and harsh, and the bass was extremely boomy. I went into a deep depression. However, after a couple of weeks of hard driving and experimenting with positioning, everything has settled down. Now they are giving me what I wanted and wasn't getting from my old speakers.

The lesson to other buyers, these speakers need a lot of running in, and they need to be positioned some distance from the back wall. As other posters in this forum have observed, experiment and experiment with positioning until you find the best spot.