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

The paradigms are too small for a room that size. Something like the Klipsch Cornwalls will work nicely and are in about the same price range. They also require a lot less power. They will make the amp you have sound more powerful. I would still add subwoofers down the line. That is a larger room with a very tall ceiling so you are going to need sound absorption in a few places. You will need much less with the Cornwalls because they have controlled dispersion. The Paradigm are not controlled and will require more room treatment to sound good.

If you've never heard Magnepans, do so before you buy. They are worlds apart (and better, IMO) than boxes.

Go listen to some systems and bring your own music. I’d think Milwaukee must have a decent audio dealer, and it’s definitely worth a trip to Chicago and check out Holm Audio, etc. as there are several good audio dealers there. The more systems you hear the better you’ll be able to develop your own sense of what sounds to to you and for your particular tastes, and no one can tell you that except you so go out there and have fun listening! The more effort you put in upfront the more rewarding your results will be, especially of this is a system you’ll be living with for many years.

Speakers: Vandersteen Quatro CT with built-in subwoofers and tunable bass response

review Quatro CT

or Larsen Model 9 (wall of sound)

Larsen 9 review

Ayre AX-5/Twenty Integrated -- great match with Vandersteen (you can get it configured so that you don’t need the hi-pass crossovers)

AX-5 Twenty link

Or maybe the Aesthetix Mimas integrated (tube preamp stage), also a great match for the Vandersteens, and their internal DAC card is supposed to be excellent and a great value.They will also configure it so it doesn’t need the hi-pass crossovers. The also have an internal phono card option, and it's said to be good.

review Aesthetix Mimas

AND-- totally agree about spending $$ and effort to tune the sonics of the room.