About ten years ago, when I had a house and a room for the theater, I put together:


Sony 36” XBR WEGA
Marantz SR-18
Paradigm Monitor 3
Paradigm CC-350
Paradigm ADP-170
Paradigm PS-1200


Once I got everything calibrated, it was great and I enjoyed it for years.

Fast forward to three years ago, things changed and I moved into a small loft. No dedicated room, 17ft ceilings (look great, sound lousy), big reflective surfaces I can't do anything about, light problems (no way to effectively cover the windows) and I've still got all the same equipment. I haven't even set up the surrounds.

I think it is time to do a moderate upgrade. I would love to do everything, but I think a new 7.1 receiver and the mini-satellites to match would blow the budget. I would rather go for quality and build over time.

So, with a budget under $3000, I am thinking that I keep the Marantz and speakers, upgrade the display to a Pioneer PDP-5020FD and throw in a PS3 for Bluray and games. The Pioneer has enough HDMI inputs for my components and the Marantz can handle everything else.

So the two questions I have are:

Are prices low enough on quality equipment that I can stay within budget and upgrade everything? It doesn't seem so, but I haven't done a whole lot of listening to compare, and with the space I don't know is quality equipment will make a huge difference.
Where do I place the dipole surrounds? If I keep the current surrounds, I'm thinking stands (I used to have them wall mounted) to get better placement, even if that means they are into the room. They would have to be close to the sofa (in the "cluster"). Think of the available space as being 12x12x17.


Any thoughts?

Many thanks!

- Paul