Is it better to have good speakers or a good receiver?

Question

This is for home surround sound. ALso does it really matter if i hook up a 5.1 harman kardon speaker set and add on two tower JBL's to create 7.1, and yes my HK receiver is 7.1.

Answer 1

You want good speakers, they are the single most important factor when it comes to sound.  

For example, you can have a 10,000 reciever and have it hooked up to cheapie speakers and it will sound horrible, but you can have a cheap reciever (300.00) hooked up to great speakers and it will sound great.

I would look at buying last years Onkyo 705 or 805 for around 300-500.00 and use that to drive your speakers.

Now for your other question, you want to use the same speakers all the way around for timbre matching, so if you use the JBL towers for mains and a H/K speaker for the center and surrounds, the sound is going to be off when the sound travels across the screen.  because you have giant towers and a smaller different brand center.

It's really not that important for the surrounds as much, but having timbre matching will give you flawless sound all around.  Since you have H/K 5.1 speakers, I would look at buying two more of the same speakers, if they no longer make them, look for H/K speakers with the same tweeter and midrange drivers to blend as close as possible with your existing speakers.

Answer 2

a good receiver (if you don't have a good receiver you will never reach the full potential of the speakers)  is better than good speakers. and adding those  speakers is fine  

Answer 3

Obviously you want both, but I would invest in good speakers first.  If you look at the way technology changes, receivers change just about every year.  However, take a look at speakers.  Speakers do not change nearly as much as receivers from year to year.