Good choice of equipment. Marantz is a particularly good company, you will get solid performance from that unit. (We abuse their equipment in the studio and it never ever fails.)

You probably already know this, but please do not cut corners on what is always the weakest link of any sound system... the cables.

Most folks get this wonderfully expensive equipment and then hook up the speakers with some old piece of wire they've had since the seventies. Same for the cables which hook up the components. If they have red and white ends, you need to upgrade! If possible, go with banana jacks for your speaker wire ends (it depends on the speakers), and make them yourself.

On average, you will have to spend over $100 for good cabling, and close to $200 (if not over that) if you have a lot of components.

Good luck, and enjoy it!

I have to agree with eko, on a lot of points. The cabling is usually the weakest link in most sound systems. Also Marantz is a great company. I own a couple of recievers that they made way back in the 70's and they're still powering the sound system back in my parents house for various rooms. Just keep on ticking without a care in the world, they do. If you don't mind, I'd appreciate some linkage to speakers and what not. I myself am looking to purchase a new set of speakers, and possibly more. I am looking at NHT, and a couple other brands, but links to what you looked into would be awesome ;)

Nice choice! That's a lot of bang for the buck. I own a pair of Studio 20s myself. Be sure to let those Paradigms warm up for a bit before any serious listening. When I demoed a pair, they didn't sound too great at first, but after 15 minutes or so, there had been a dramatic improvement (could have been my brain warming up).

Bah. Cabling. There's not much to a cable, really. And why spend hundreds of dollars on cable one can build for himself for a fraction of that? The whole uproar over cables recently makes me laugh. Monster Cable? It's nothing more but a nicely packaged, overpriced piece of wiring.

I helped my father build his personal recording studio, and just about all the cabling we did by hand, soldering on the plugs. All the in-wall cabling was done with standard CAT-5 ethernet wire. Do you know how much it would cost to do such a huge amount of wiring with retail cabling?

As long as the cables are firmly put together and have the standard plastic shield around them, you'll be fine.

The most intelligent comments I've ever heard about cabling were along these lines:
They're a limiting component. Better cables will help you get the most out of your equipment, but not more performance than the equipment is capable of delivering.
My own take on this: there's a lot of places in a typical system where you can spend $200 to improve sound. Now it's a shame to have excellent equipment limited by mediocre cables, but you'd have to have seriously hard-core audiophile equipment for cables to be majorly hampering performance. (Note I'm talking about audio cables. Video is another matter altogether, because, I gather, of the multiplicity of signals being carried.)

Oh, and huzzah. Medium- and high- end audio and home theater is a lot of fun, isn't it?

Who'll push more dB's, you or Pav? Raise the roof or just blast the windows? C'mon, you know you want to turn the amp to eleven. Just once.

Hyatt's speakers have more bang than mine do, but I bet I'll crank it to 11 before he does ;)

I, too, would love a link to the stuff you got, as well as a full review after the fact on how it all sounds together, and what made you choose it. I'm in the process of starting to look at new stuff to replace my old setup (small, but sounded good in the tiny room I call my office...which used to be a closet until I gutted it and built in a permanent desk).

Here's hoping you get it all set up for movie night. :)

I got matching centers, rears and sub for my Paradigm Studio/100s. More specifically, the Servo-15 sub, the Studio/ADPs, and the Studio/CC center. I have a 5:1 setup with the ADPs in the back (since the previous house owner already had the speaker wire run through the ceiling it was easiest to do this). My receiver is a Marantz 8200 (the same receiver Pav got also).

I'm still fiddling with settings. The first interesting thing I've run into is that the sub controls aren't on the Servo-15. I actually need an X-30 control unit from Paradigm if I want finer control over some of the sub settings. I would have thought this would be included, but it wasn't, so all I can really manipulate on the sub is its level, but it still sounds awesome.

I did get them set up in time for movie night, but the rears and sub were turned down to low (I have them better balanced now). The next movie night should have better earth-shaking sub action. :)

Everything sounds great so far; once I've broken them in a bit more, I'll post an update.

Time for Avia / Video Essentials and an SPL meter?

I think Pav was gonna spring for the SPL meter. Then he can come over and I can use it. ;)

yeah, I'm gonna go get the SPL meter and Avia most likely. If any of you are in the bay area though and want to let me borrow yours that'd be great as well :)

Easter egg!

Okay there is a easter egg in Safari, problem is I dont know how to reproduce it.

Last week I was surfing along and al of a sudden a huge elephant roar came from my computer. Scared the hell out of me. I was on think secret and spymac when this occured. I have since tried to reproduce it but alas I cannot.

Anyone else have this occur?

Thomas

Sounds like a killer home theater system. On the cable issue, well I've got some pretty decent (good bang for the buck, but not ridiculously expensive) audiophile gear, and I've played around with it a lot. So far, the biggest difference I've heard from changing anything was from changing the speaker cable. I'm using Kimber 8TC, but with the exception of your sub, that's probably overkill for a home theater setup. I'd think that some Kimber 4VS or AudioQuest Type 4 would be great. The cheap stuff that I was using previously made the sound harsh in the treble, and thin in the bass, in comparison to the Kimber cable.

I've listened to several different models of Paradigms, but I think I spent the longest listeining to some Studio/40s, and Studio/60s, hooked up to Bryston amps (I don't remember the source components). They struck me as having good sound, but not being very musical. I was helping someone shop for some good speakers for a music-only system, and he ended up going for ProAc Tablette 2000s instead of the Studio/60s. Unfortunately, we had to drive three hours to find a ProAc dealer. Personally I've got a pair of B&W mini-monitors for music, and they never cease to amaze me.

Pav, if you can wait til next w/e I'll dig up my copies of Avia/VE. You'll still need the SPL meter.

Miles, I heard the biggest difference jumping from the Studio/60s to the Studio/80s. I must confess that the difference between the Studio/80s and the Studio/100s was hard for me to discern except when listening to a particular Puccini aria. Most of the other music I tried sounded just as good with the 80s.

Well, maybe I'll have to hunt down a Paradigm dealer locally, just to give them a listen. I was in Oregon at the time, and I'm now residing in St. Louis. It may be fun to listen to, but probably way out of the budget considerations. I doubt I'd seriously be looking at anything over $1000/pair, and at that price, it would be hard to beat the B&W Nautilus 805s, but the Paradigms do have more bass.