Paradigm or Monitor Audio's?? Any thoughts?

In your message you stated that you are going to add the center and backs later. From this I am assuming that you are interested in speakers for a home theater set-up? I am sure you will also be listening to music too. Anyway, I guess I am a rare breed over here on Audiogon (not much disscussion about MA) and I would say that I would go with the Monitor Audios. I started out with a pair of S8 about 1 year ago and then I purchased a pair of Gold reference 60 from MA. In my opinion these are fantastic speakers for their price. They are very easy to drive and work extremely well for both music and home theater. Some people feel that MA in general are bright. Maybe at first but after they have been burned in they sound fantastic especially if they are connected with a good pair of cables such as the Zu Cable Wax which I use. I am not sure that "bright" is the correct way to describe them. My opinion is that they are very detailed with a very tight bass response. When I was auditioning speakers I listened to the Paradigm Monitor series and the PSB stratus golds. In my opinion these speakers were not as revealing as the Monitor Audios I auditioned. I am not sure how much you want to spend but I would look here on Audiogon for Monitor Audio. If you want a bookself speaker you might want to look at the Gold Ref 10 and if you want a floor stander the S6 should work very nice or you could check out the Gold Ref20. Good luck