PSB Gold , NHT 3.3, Paradigm 100 V2?

I have Gold i's in use in the main family living room of my home. They are an excellent all-around speaker for both critical and background/casual listening. Moreover and perhaps more importantly, they are quite accommodating to ALL types of music. Hence, while I mainly listen to jazz, blues & classical---when we entertain and the crowd feels like dancing, I can blast my son's latest DJ mixes with dance club volume and weight. In addition, though I recognize speaker placement is presently not an issue for you, just in the event things ever change, understand that though the Golds may in fact be designed to be placed out into the room, due to WAF and four kids that like to use the room to play baseball, football, wrestling, what-have-you, I must keep them back a mere 10 inches or so from the rear wall. Several times when I've been alone, I have experimented with placement---moving them out, toeing them in---more/less, etc., but I have found I actually prefer the results when they are back in their original position. Finally, I have used them in conjunction with numerous amps and have found they are extremely forgiving/non-tempermental. I've tried them with as much as 250 wpc solid state amps to as little as 8 wpc 300B monoblock SET amps (just to test the water), this even while the SETs were hardwire configured for 8 ohms and the Golds of course being 4 ohms AND the results were not all that terrible! The room by the way is 25 x 23 x 16 (ceiling height). As far as value goes, you can pick up a pair, discounted, for $1850. I hope this may be of some help. Good luck! Rick

Support Rick and his all around performance recommendation for the Stratus. This speaker is up to the task even after you make several upgrades to other components in your system. Your Sunfire should provide plenty to get a very appealing presentation from the Golds.

A speaker comparable in price, to the Gold i is the Hales Revelation Three. I found they image better and are a little less bright than the Gold i. Definitely worth an audition. Vandersteen has some models straddling the Hales in price that are definitely worth an audition, too. That, of course, is a reference to the 2CE Signature and 3A.

I am not sure if your list was created of speakers you like, or just coincidence. But they are all relatively in the same boat. Dynamic, demanding, a bit bright to some listeners, and GREAT values. I really love the combinations of the PSB Goldi and the Sunfire. It is a terrific marriage. Those speakers are best(and REALLY come alive) with an amp that can really pump a lot of current into their low impedence. You can pick up a new pair for about $1700, so cost is comparable to Paradigm. You could not go wrong with any of the three, but since you already have the Sunfire, I would opt for the PSBs.

Trelja is correct, definitely go with PSB Gold-i over Paradigm, I feel PSB Gold-i is a class above Paradigm 100. I am puzzled by the "bit bright" comment as JA in his enthusiastic review in Stereophile comments that the treble was actually a bit "mellow" which was a good thing to him. Rick you must move Golds out into room to get decent 3D imaging, at least 4-5ft from wall. At 1ft from rear wall you are barely scratching the surface of what these speakers can do, they throw huge soundstage when set up properly, Sam