Polks needed on 6th channel?

Early B.

I have a 40 in the center, 38's up front, 28's in the rear, and a pair of JBL N24s on the 6th channel. My sitting position is on the back wall. The 28's are positioned 7 ft. high on the side walls firing in towards the listeners. The N24's are on the back wall at ear level on each side of the couch. The room is 20' x 13'.

Is there any value to timbre-matching the speakers on the 6th channel? In other words, would I experience a significant improvement in sound if I changed out the JBL's for Polk Fxi30's? My interest is in movies only, not music (I prefer 2 channels for music).

Thanks.

Ceruleance

can you hear the jbl's distinctly from the polk's? If it blends well enough that you get an enveloping surround field rather than just, "oh there is a rear surround effect coming from the polks, oh wait now the jbl's".. then keep it the way it is. On the other hand the if the blend between from jbl's to polk's is noticable you may want to change the jbl's out.

There are two ways to view this problem:

1)since you are asking, you probably dont really mind the timbre mismatch much and are just doing it because it seems like the right thing to do

2)since you are asking, it's obviously something that is bothering you and even if you can't hear it it still may bother if you are one of those kind of people.

ultimately, if you find a good price on some polk surrounds, go for it

dorokusai

They are so cheap right now, just go 100% Polk. Sell the JBL's and cover the cost, or use them for another purpose.

I think their is value in timbre matching them all, but that is personal. The JBL is not a drastic departure from the Polk, so the difference is negligible.

Early B.

Yeah, if the Fxi30's were cheap and available in my locality, I would change them out. As it turns out, I would have to buy them new or I could get them used off ebay for $200. Just wondering if it was worth it to buy them.

I had a pair a pair of Wharfedale surrounds on the rear and changed them out for the 28's and there was a drastic improvement. Not sure if there would be a corresponding improvement if I did the same thing on the sixth channel. If so, I'll save my money and go for it. Otherwise, I'll keep my money. Haven't decided yet.

wallstreet

I would say if you bought a comparable performing speaker from Polk with matching drivers, the increase of sound fidelity would be nominal for movies but significant for music.