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Recommendations for HiFi Listening Room

Newbie here.  Wife and I are looking to turn our Great Room into a listening room.  It’s roughly 21’X’19 and has a cathedral ceiling that is 11’ tall at the wall and 20’ tall at the apex.  Spoke to a good hifi dealer in the area who made the following recommendations/proposal and I’m curious if this group may have any input for getting maximum bang for my buck.  Basically, with a budget around 35k (or thereabouts) would you buy something similar or are there any components you’d add or swap out?

Paradigm Persona 3F

McIntosh MA8950

Pro-Ject Xtension 9 w/ Ortofon Black Cartridge 

Sony ES DSD Music Server (this one concerns me a touch in that it appears to be an 8 yr old product line).

Thanks so much in advance for your collective expertise.  My wife isn’t going to let me drop money into this for another 15 years so I need to get it right the first time. 

If it matters, our musical taste is quite varied: classical, jazz, classic rock, alternative, hip hop.  My mother complained in my youth that if i had 10 bucks I would just buy a CD with it.  She is still right. 

128x128brewerslaw
spiritofradio's avatar
spiritofradio
3,449 posts
 

if you have symmetrical corners facing the sectional get these (below).   they will fill the room, and your whole house actually, with beautiful sound.   they're big but would be out of the way in the corners.   these guys on here are mostly old and while many have lots of experience they tend to get a narrow focus and ignore what you actually asked which is about a system for your family room.  nobody in there right mind would put gik all over the walls and ceiling of a public family room.   if your wife agreed to that id be very surprised.  moreover, if you want that id be very surprised.   

this:

 

ghdprentice
7,135 posts
 

OP,

Qobuz and Tidal are universally regarded as the best sounding services regardless of their resolution. Then between the two Qobuz sounds slightly better… but more importantly Qobuz has over one half million high resolution albums… as of late last year Tidal had a tenth of that.

My audio guy bugged me for a year before I finally started a trial with Qobuz. The trial did not last a month… but only a day. I immediately cancelled my Tidal subscription and never thought about it again.

kota1
2,706 posts
 

After selecting your components setting up your room is the key. You should start by positioning your speakers properly and then treat your room. I really like the room kits they offer at Sonitus, Anthony Grimani's company:

 

kota1
2,706 posts
 

BTW, if you haven't purchased speakers yet you may want to look at active speakers such as the Kef LS60 which is an entire system. They have reviews of many of these type of system/speakers at soundstage:

 

https://www.soundstagesimplifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews

steve59's avatar
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steve59
1,783 posts
 

List of speakers I’ve had in my listening room for at least 6 months. Revel salon 1, salon 2, usher be20dmd, persona 7f, meridian dsp 8000se, Kef blade, vienna acoustics strauss and kef r107/2&r105/3. 
 

for a bright room I would recommend the usher, vienna acoustics and mostly meridian dsp8k. The salon2 and kef blade will be better with carpet and space, even more so for the persona’s. 
 

I found the persona’s to be the most amplifier sensitive, the salon 2 the most power hungry and the blades are my current passive favorite. Used prices on meridian make them a great bargain but service is limited to a single shop in Georgia. Legacy aeris look the goods for a large room.

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