Matching Surrounds with Floorstanders (and a few other things..)

[Vibes]

Hi,
I have a pair of Epos M15.2's and was looking for rear surrounds to compliment the floorstanders.

I've heard that you should match the rears as closely as possible to the fronts. Is this always the case? A few versions of the debate say look for matching Timbre, others say go for the same product family for an easy fit. From eposacoustics.com I gather the M5 should be the best for a rear set to compliment the 15.2's. Has anyone has experience with this setup?

Also is the same true for the center channel? (i.e. should it compliment the fronts?)

My main use of the system is for Stereo and Mutlichannel SACD, plus concert DVD's. I do use the system for DVD's but my priority here is for music.

On a secondary note, Epos are a bit of a hidden treasure around my area. I had to import these myself from O/S. Does anyone know of a good online retailer, with O/S delivery?

Any help with the above is appreciated

Thanks.

[shokhead]

Front Right,Center and Left in front should match. Surrounds and sub doesnt need to.

[Eric Z]

shokhead speaks the truth, the fronts and center should match! some will say the rears should as well, but there's not that much stuff coming out of the rears, so you should be fine if they don't. some have said with newer DVDs or SACD of DVDA, you will be able to tell if the rears don't match.

[abstracta]

Frost and center should have matching drivers, or drivers in the same production class.

Since there are very few good rear speakers on the market, the rules are more open.

[kexodusc]

Drivers in the same production class might as well be a whole different driver. All the T/S parameters change, and the way the woofer behaves at the crossover point does too.

That being said, a designer can voice match speakers with different drivers (and is often done).

For Multi-channel audio sources such as SACD/DVD-A, you should really have as closely matching rears as possible. Of course, many people have other more important priorities in life, so if you can't get the same speakers (or close) as your front mains, you can still get good results with others, and as has been mentionied, better to compromise on the rear speakers than the front 3.