The audition went great today here in Calgary at Sounds-of-music. I auditioned the B&W Line of speakers first from 600 series to 700. I love the B&W line but lacked the Punch i was looking for.
Than the sales rep. replace the speakers with Paradigm Studio series 60's and 100's. Man right away you could hear the difference in music and HT. Good bass for the size. Crystal clear midrange. Awsome built quality, plain and simply paradigm makes great speakers for the money. My hat is off for the Paradigm guy's who made such nice speakers. The 100's where an over kill for my area since i had a Mission MS10 Sub. i did not need to spend extra $900 for the bigger speakers. With the money i saved there i bought the rears.
So here is what i went with:
Paradigm studio 60 v3's for the front Paradigm cc570 for the center. Paradigm studio 20 v3' for the rears. Rotel RSX-1076 receiver.
All in black color. Will take them 2 weeks to deliver since they had none in stock. Can hardly wait.
Well this setup blew my budget of $2000 for speakers. Wife is going to shoot me. Ohhh well at least i will die an happy man.
Also i got 20% Off the retail price on the whole package.
Ilker, you have a kickin' system there. The Rotel will just love the load, what player do you have? As far as the WAF goes, just go with the 'it's a lifetime investment' line.
I cannot think of another investment that brings such joy and excitement into a home as much as great music. This stuff is built for one purpose only, to bring joy. Can you think of anything better than that? Send this along to your lovely wife.
Congrats to you!!! Oh Man, I envy you...I wish I have a system like yours...hehehe Yup, I agree with you on the 60's it's a nice set...by the way what receiver did you use for the B&W? "coz when I test the B&W 603's & 604's with Rotel 1056 it's more bass low high's and its true not much punch. Anyway, have a good time with your new baby!!! hehehe
Nice combo, Iiker. Nothing to complain about with any Rotel stuff, either. Just keeps going and going. My rb985 has a hum in one channel, but I know what I did wrong.
I listened to B&W's with Rotal RSX-1076. Since that was the receiver i was buying i had to audition the speakers with it. B&W's usually sound very good with Rotel but i couldn't really hear the puch from the B&W's that i heard from the pradigm's.
To anyone looking at B&W speakers i would still recomend them with high marks. They are very good speakers. But for my taste of music and movies the Paradigms where more clear.
I also heard that some people where hearing a humm with the rotel RSX receivers. But with mine there is nothing of that nature. I don't know if all are like that or just some of these receivers have problems. I really couldn't answer.
I agree with that iiker... lucky you you tested both speakers with rotel is your store has both speaker or you bought the rotel then you tested to a different store? I wish i can find a store that carries both speaker and receiver that i want to get. Well, me still on a journey to check some speakers and a receiver too. hehehe
The store i tested the speakers had them side by side. This is a very high end store here in Calgary. They carry every high end equipment known. If you don't be careful you could walk out of there spending very large amount of money.
Check your area for one of these stores. Make sure the sales guy is very helpful and he is just not try to make a sale. I had a very good experience with my purchace, i hope you will too.
Oh I agree with you on that...thats why I'm very meticulous and observant as i can on every move or how they say about speakers & receivers. Thanks for your word of wisdom...
Hey there. Strongly considering the Focal/JMlab 816. I heard them at tweeter via a pioneer elite home theatre receive and I thought they sounded pretty decent. Would also like to try to listen to paradigms. Tweeter (focals) do not deal in B&K or Rotel. Another dealer (paradigms)deals in Rotel but not B&K. The B&K dealer around here carries neither Focals or Paradigm. Ugh. Hopefully I can get some insight via this thread.
definitley used to. I remember coveting them there earlier. But they decided to drop the line for some other higher end lines that I am not familiar with.
That'd be a hall. I am in southern NE. Can you purchase at the factory? Any discounts available there? Do they have a listening room? Another question--there are some websites that offer B&K stuff on discount. Even some purportedly new stuff on ebay considerably less than msrp. Is that a bad idea?
not sure if they offer any discounts, but I live in NY, so its what gave me the idea. I am over that way constantly. However, I don't know if you can purchase from the factory as I have never been there. I am going to B-Lo next week over my spring break, and might stop in the factory to check it out. I'll keep you posted if I do.
IIker, I have been considering the same setup except to get Studio 100 for front as I have a big size room. Can you tell me the dimensions of your room and the height?
How much did you end up paying for the speakers alone?
Studio 100's are great speakers. The only reason i did not go with them was that i allready had a 12" sub. My Bonus roon size is 25' long X 15' Wide X 15' high.
The studio 60's where $1900 canadian The Studio 20's where $1000 canadian The CC570 was $900 canadian The rotel RSX 1076 was $3500
Total Retail for everything was $7300 Canadian. I got 20% off on the whole purchase.
Thats a good deal...!!! So how's your system huh? I'm pretty sure after work or over the weekends you must be in that room to check on those system huh..!??!?! hehehe
I don't have the system in the house yet. It will take 2 weeks to get the speakers in. The only toy i took home and playing around with it right now is the ROTEL RSX 1076 receiver. Soon as i get the system hooked up i will give more feed back for you guy's.
I hope the paradigm studio's will sound good in my Bonus room as they did in the showroom. I can hardly wait.
Finding a very good sales guy is the key here. The person i dealt with over a 2 week audition was very good. Not pushey and very profesional. I could have squeezed out maybe 5% more out of the deal but since the guy was very helpful i wanted him to make the extra Cash. This will help me out in the long run when i go to see him again for my other Audio or Video needs. I will definitly bring him more business.
I was very happy with the 20% he gave me. Most places i went only offered me 10% from the retail price. So shopping around paid off.
This is how my Audition went:
At first i did some research in my area for a good person to deal with. I went into some forums and got some feed back on who to see.
So than i was recommended this guy at sounds of music in calgary which i E-Mailed.
I started asking him questions on the product i was looking for and some prices.
Then i made an appoitment to see him on a saturday to audition some speakers.
So i went in and met the guy. He showed me around their store. I got see all the products i wanted to Audition.
Then he got me my Personal Show room that i could mix and match receivers and Speakers as i would like. He helped me out hooking up the stuff and would leave me for hours to listen to My music i brought with my DVD movies.
I did this for about 2 weeks before i decided on the Paradigm's with Rotel.
Than we sat down to talk about the price. Thats when the negotiations began.
After everything was said and done i was a very happy man. Got my 20% off but mostly met a great guy that i would deal with again
wow that's a good way of closing the deal huh. Yup, I agree with you once you've met a sales guy is honest, not pushy, give more idea and selections definitely go back. Obviously man you got a very good deal on your system. Yes, please give us your feedback on this. Happy Listening!!!
I'm glad Sounds Of Music was good for you, I've always found them a little...less than attentive in there, you could say. I don't want to be jumped on when I walk through the door, but I don't want to be ignored, either.
Personally, I find the staff at K&W are excellent. I've been there quite a few times, and walked out with nothing. Despite that, they are always friendly and helpful...and because of that they will get all the proceeds from my planned upgrades.
I also have dealt with K&W audio in the past. They are great guys to deal with. They also been in Calgary for a long time. The only reason i couldn't go with them was that they didn't carry Rotel and Paradigm's like Sounds of Music did. Also they wouldn't move too much on the price for me in the past.
I was going to Audition some totems over at K&W but did not have the time to do so. My wife likes the way they look. For music i heard they where great but for HT i wanted more Bass more punch. So thats why i got the Paradigms.
