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

get rid of the paradigm persona that beryllium Tweeter and midrange are very bright and edgy, go listen to the monitor audio platinum 200 ll or 300 ll much better speaker, more natural sounding and way more three-dimensional, the sound  just wraps around and envelops the room and that MPD tweeter is much more natural sounding as well and three dimensional.

 

don't listen to audio Troy he's just pushing his stuff, the paradigm persona are very bright and edgy I guarantee you won't like them, if you have them in your town like I said go listen to the monitor audio platinum they're much more musical and natural sounding and way more three-dimensional than the paradigm persona will ever be.

and if you want to get rid of room problems get the Townshend podiums, they stop speaker vibrations down to three Hertz and also they get rid of the constant Earth vibration that's there all the time, when your speakers shake it smears the sound they're not cheap but they get rid of almost all room problems.

and for cables get OCC single Crystal wire it has been proven to be the best wire for audio for over 50 years now far superior to anything ofc at any price. but again don't cheapen out.

@brewerslaw 

I hate to say this, but whatever audio equipment you bring into this large room, you will have to make some sizable acoustic treatment investment to get the best sound out of it. Make sure you set aside at least $5,000 to treat your room accordingly. Specially with the 20ft ceiling at apex, wow! Instead of talking to an audio dealer first, I would contact someone like Gik asap, give them a detail drawing of the room and ask for their advice. They will do that at no charge. As you can see in my house of stereo, acoustic treatment is a major part of the listening room.