What integrated to go with Paradigm studio/60's???

Keith,

You don't say how long you have had your Paradigms in your system.

First and foremost, break in your Paradigms for a good 100 hours before expecting them to blossom, and blossom they will. The Studio series is notorious for its long break in period. My Studio 100's sound great now but I almost returned them because I was so disappointed when I first brought them home. Play them, play them, play them. I'm glad I was patient.

Second, consider buying a good dedicated CD player rather than expecting good quality CD playback from a DVD player. Some DVD players do fine with CD playback but not many.

As far as a good $ 1000 integrated, there are many good ones on the market. I currently run an Arcam Alpha 10 100 wpc which is a highly regarded former Stereophile Class B recommended. You can pick up a mint Alpha 10 on Audiogon for $ 600-700. The newer FMJ A22 is essentially the same product and runs $ 1000-1100 used on Audiogon. It is a current Stereophile Class B product.

Second on my list for integrateds in that price range would be the Musical Fidelity A 3.2 - also a Stereophile Class B recommended product. This is new $ 1495 but mint used at probably 60% of that.

Personally, I will be purchasing a Bryston 4B SST power amp and use my Arcam 10 as a preamp only to drive it. I want more oomph.

Good luck.

I've had the speakers for about five months and I do know that they take a while to break in because I was sorely disappointed at first. They took at least 50 hrs for the bass to even start to appear. As for the DVD player, it is an NAD which has a pretty good rep for spinning CD's in their players, although I've never auditioned it against a dedicated CD player. Thanks for your suggestions on the amp too, I'll look into those. What about the Krell 300i? Anyone's thoughts?

keith

I agree that you should consider ditching the DVD for a dedicated CDP. I think then you would be more likely to find a substantial improvement, even with a modest integrated.

If you acquired, say, a Rega Planet and a Rotel or Creek integrated, I think you would be pleasantly surprised. As for the Krell, it's a pretty good value on the used market, but I have not heard it paired with any of your other components.

And don't skip on speaker cables and ICs - many have fallen victim to the folly of trying to save $$$ that way.

Try a Plinius 8150 or 8200 if you are lucky you may find one for about $1200. I do not think you would look back as these are very nice with excellent tone, detail and control.