Here's a challenge:a class A sound system for less

I'm not going to get into recommending a shopping list, but a good strategy would be to plan on what's called "nearfield listening", a fancy term for "sittin' real close", like in studio control rooms (which is where the whole 'studio monitor' thing came from).

You still can't skimp on the front end stuff, or cabling. The better, the better. But you can get really high-end monitors for a great deal less (a lot of speaker cost is in the cabinets!) and of course a high quality integrated amp should get you a really good system.

A side benefit of nearfield listening is that room size (large or small) and acoustics (good or bad) have less impact on what you actually hear at your listening position (BTW, were talking not more than 8 feet away from the speakers +/_)

Mr. P: I was totally charmed by your old/new/used system choices. As I visualized what you had put/kept together, the (very rare) thought came over me, "Gee, I'd be interested/curious what that bunch of stuff sounds like!" -- I consider that (probably) my highest complement ;-)

What was fun (for me) was that the combo included NOTHING I would have thought to select. I know all of it, but probably none of those pieces would have registered with me as I scanned the used equipment pages here on AgoN.

But starting with the Merlins, as I read down your list, I was going, "Hmmm that's an interesting choice! Hmmm . . . . " And all taken together, it makes a weird kind of sense. Very creative! So how does it sound? You din't say nuthin' 'bout cables ;--)