Using in ceiling surround, shall I upgrade?

I admit the tonal difference for different brand to my front could be a drawback, but I have no idea how much it is. I guess I will never know unless I experiment with same brand, but do you have experience how that would improve?

You didn't seem to oppose using in-ceiling, which I was thinking to get rid of. It is just a matter of whether the in-ceiling speaker can have angled tweeter that can be point at the main listening position, does the rear speakers also do the same? I also heard that the surround and rear speakers shall not be too directional to the listening position in order not to give the listener sense the speakers ARE THERE kind of feel, thats why a bipole speakers are being developed, isn't that contrary to what you just said?

For OFF AXIS, my perception to this term is all diagonal speakers (except center) will cross at one point which shall be the MAIN listening position, (e.g.F/R TO R/L, S/R to S/L)am I correct? Well, I never thought of that when I built them. Is this crucial?

I use direct radiating and not bipole speakers. With in ceiling if you want the bipole effect you aim the tweeter away from the listening position to the wall. I didn't do that and have my tweeters aimed at the listening position. I listen to multichannel music and movies and with music the direct radiating is better than dipole. Some companies don't even make nipples and Revel's top of the line doesn't have bipoles. So no, I don't think dipoles are as "mandatory" as you might think. It's more about placement and configuration. In my Preamp you configure dipole or direct. The difference is that direct gives you the ability to enter in distance.

The timbre between speaker brands can be significant. What do you have for fronts? The difference between my Atlantic tech and Revels is significant. They would not mate well at all. Years ago as I was building out my system I had mated my Revel fronts with Focal dipole surrounds and Cambridge sound works rears. Yuk. Anytime there was a surround effect panning across speakers you could tell right away there was something not right. Even the Focals--which are simply excellent speakers--did not timbre match the Revels. I could tell. And they were wall mounted and not ceiling mounted. Remember: I'm hearing you say that the sound isn't good, not the effects.

So, if you can answer "yes" to all my assumptions in my previous post then, in my humble opinion that's what you should do. 1) make sure you like the sound of your speaker brand. 2) if so match it all the way around.

I am not disagreeing with Kal's point and post about in-ceiling vs. wall mount. I'm simply saying that if you need to have aesthetics, in-ceilings can indeed work very well and effectively.

With that level of front end, I think you should get some nicer surround speakers.

I think this general question is related to this thread but feel free to move it not. I ask as general rule, what does one do the brand of front channel speakers you are using does not offer surrounds -or say you already have holes in the ceiling where prior owner used in ceilings -or where WAF will not allow for installation of onwalls. Is there any way to try and match timbre?

Kbuzz, you will have to make some concession. If its a larger company they may have a different line of speaker that offers in walls. Otherwise ask your dealer for a good compromise brand. If you are not dealing with a dealer then post your speakers and ask the community for suggestions. The way to handle it is that the architectural speakers of a brand should be timbre matched. Therefore if the free standing sound close to you then the in ceiling should be close.

Theo