Importance of voice and timbre matching?

[mpholic_2]

The left front main in my surround speaker setup has failed (they are in excess of ten years old). The woofer cone is seperating from the surround material.

I am shopping around for replacemnt speakers and had a question. My speakers have been collected over time as my system changed and finances allowed. All of the speakers are JBLs but not in the same series and manufactured many years apart.

My first plan was to just replace the front mains and then I remembered reading something about voice and timbre matching and wondered whether I should replace all of the speakers at the same time. I've decided on Polk TSi300s (main), CS10 (center) and TSi100s (surround L/R). The Surround backs will not be replaced at this time since there is so little 7 channel blu rays being released right now.

We did considerably better on our taxes than expected this year and I am wondering if the older speakers can keep up with the new audio formats and whether matching speakers are really that important from a sonic point of view.

My Blu Ray player is a Panasonic with 7 channel analog output and my receiver is a Sony with 7 channel analog input. The Panasonic player is doing the decoding.

Should I just get the mains or replace the whole set?

Thanks

[akirby]

I would go ahead and replace the mains and center - surrounds should be fine for now. You could get by with just replacing the mains if you have a decent center channel. How noticeable it will be depends on your sensitivity and the material you're watching.

You can always start with the mains and see how it sounds, then decide if it's worth upgrading the center.

[Richard]

If performance is the goal then they should be matched.

If you were happy so far then you will likely be just as happy not worrying about that.

Something being outdated is clearly the new social conscious... this came up last night at a friends house over our throw away society. I can't think of any reason why or how a speaker could be outdated beyond the natural degradation of materials used and that will vary with the quality of materials used by each manufacturer. I have woofers over 20 years old with quality rubber surrounds; I had to re-glue the cone back onto the voice coil shaft...

[rml]

... I have woofers over 20 years old with quality rubber surrounds; I had to re-glue the cone back onto the voice coil shaft...

Along these lines, I would note that there are many sources from which you could get your JBLs repaired and fairly inexpensively at that. In fact, you may well be able to find an OEM replacement. If, however, you think its time for new speakers with a different sound, that's different matter.