Sound System on $10K Budget

Congrats on the speaker choice. They are definitely beautiful and should serve you very well. Given your focus on simplicity and use with TV, I’d reiterate that having HDMI connectivity would be nice to allow you to minimize remotes and cabling requirements/clutter. Depending on how much budget actually remains (guessing $2-3k), the Naim uniti atom I mentioned before may still fit the bill for used options. If you can wait a bit, the new NAD c399 is now available for pre-order. It has HDMI as well (available via a separate module on earlier c368/388 models) but perhaps more importantly also has Dirac room correction (I don’t believe the earlier models have Dirac but I could be wrong). It is available with their Blu-OS module if you want streaming built-in or without it if you don’t. Both the Naim & NAD have headphone amps built-in…not sure how good they are, but if you aren’t using your current headphone amp almost at all then they are probably good enough.

I doubt anyone would fault you at all for choosing a Parasound Hint6 or whatever you can afford from Hegel if you decide you don’t care about having HDMI. Both would be highly regarded and have good resale value if they turn out not to be your cup of tea. 

We are in the same boat. But rather than looking at the Olympicas, we are considering the Sonetto V or VIII. Fit budget and leave room. Did you decide on an amp? Dealers are pushing us to Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum or McIntosh MA 252. No one mentions the Parasound...wish we had more time at these places. 

@buddyboy1 +1

Great suggestions. The only change I’d suggest is that instead of Ares, up the budget a little and go for Denafrips Pontus 2. Otherwise, this is a system I won’t mind owning myself. 

I’d get a used active ATCSCM 40 set of speakers and add a DAC/preamp combo.

This is one of the best integrated amps you can buy even at many times the MSRP price of $9500.

Krell K-300i Integrated Stereo Amplifier For Sale - US Audio Mart

I used to own the Meze Empy with Benchmark HPA4 headphone amp. I thought it was great. However, after I had the RAAL SR1a for a few months I realized I was never going to listen to the Meze again. I sold the Meze and the HPA4.

The KRELL integrated is, in my opinion, the very best of the best for the RAAL SR1a headphones. I have tried a lot of 2 channel amps and the dedicated RAAL headphone amp. In fact, I bought the KRELL Duo 175XD last month specifically for the RAAL SR1a in my office. This was based solely on how good the SR1a was on the K-300i.

The way it would work is that RAAL will provide an AMP INTERFACE BOX with the headphones. You can use a 2-channel amp to drive the headphones and this box has a switch to send the output of the integrated to the 2-channel speakers. You would need 2 sets of speaker cables to do this. The supplied speaker cables by RAAL are not good. I have not used the switch to change from the headphones to the speakers. I have a more elaborate setup. However, the only potential negative would be the extra path to the speakers. The headphone path has to exist anyways.

The KRELL integrated will have built-in streaming, ROON READY, DAC, HDMI for TV and Bluray. The sound is very smooth, good detail, and very relaxing and non-fatiguing. Normally not my kind of sound but I am now hooked on it. 

You would just need an Ethernet wire from your network to hookup to the KRELL. Hopefully a ROON account and you are ready to go. If you do not have Ethernet nearby (I do not in my setup) you can use a PowerLine extension to your home network to work via the electricity outlets in the room. This is how I have setup my KRELL. Though I am somewhat technical and know how to fix these things if the network ever has a hiccup.  It usually happens when things are moved around or unplugged.