B&W 803 Nautilus or Paradigm Studio 100 v.5?

I owned a pair of Studio 100v2 and I think they offer the best bang for you bucks, especially if your gears are not very expensive as they are not that revealing I gave my them to my parents and they're happy being driven by a simple HK receiver. That said, I am a big fan of B&W having gone through 602, 805N, 804N and finally 801N and I do think they are amazing when driven by quality amps. If you listen to a lot of vocal, trumpet instrumental and jaz, I'd pick the 803N over the paradigm any day.

The 100V5 is a very capable speaker at a great price and will play very loud without stress. But the 803 has a quality of sound the Paradigm can't quite match. You didn't mention what amp and equipment your using or have a system link so my advice is purely generic.

Regards Tim

I am not a fan of B&W speakers. Having said that, you really must audition your speaker of interest to see if you can live with it. I would listen to every speaker I could at your price point, a little above, and a little below. If you select your speaker because of reputation, other people's opinion, or ads, you very well might have blown through your cash without satisfaction.

I appreciate the responses and advice about listening to the speakers first... I am trying to make that happen, but it is difficult in a rural setting. I am trying to be patient enough for that to happen... ha.

Since this will be my first attempt at building a system, albeit on a limited budget ($5000 or so), any additional advice would be greatly appreciated. I am starting from scratch, so my first target with the initial budget is used floorstanders and an amp/receiver... I will eventually build a 5.1 system as more funds become available. My musical tastes run the gambit... classical to jazz and country to rock. I have a large number of my cds ripped into lossless audio files and have a Cambridge Audio DAC that I plan to incorporate into the system... I also have my parents vinyl collection that I would like to incorporate eventually as well... I will need a turntable for that and I think the budget will probably delay that portion for now.