Modest System

[Butch]

Home made shelf system made from 6061-T6 aluminum alloy extrusions welded into a frame and hand polished. It is supporting 6 sheets of 3/16" tempered and tinted glass shelves.

On the shelf top to bottom:

DirecTV HR21-100 HD Receiver
Marantz DV9600 Universal Player
Monster HT3500 Power Conditioner with modifications by Nuforce
Marantz SR19 Receiver
Anthem Statement A5 5-Channel Amplifier
That thing atop the Player is a Sound Enhancer from Acoustic Research.

The Rest of it:

Paradigm Reference Studio 100v2 Main L/R
Sony KP-57WS510 HDTV
Paradigm Reference Studio CC Center Channel
Paradigm Servo 15 v2 Subwoofer
Paradigm Reference Studio ADP Surrounds (Not Shown)

Interconnects: Kimber Kable Hero.
Center Channel Speaker Cable: Kimber 8TC
Main L/R Speaker Cable: MIT Terminator II Biwire
Surrounds Speaker Cable: Monster Flat Wire

I started putting this stuff together in 1999 following the loss of my old system to a Burglar. I've been adding/upgrading at the rate of $2 to $3K per year. This spring I added the Anthem which has been one of my most satisfying upgrades to date. The other was moving from Studio 60's to the 100's. Future upgrades include a Blu-Ray Player and a Pre/Pro. I'm leaning toward an Anthem AVM 30.

[kennyt]

Butch,

Nice rig, I had that Paradigm system (v4) in for review a while back, and kept it for a few months after too. It rocks, especially for films, highly involving and dynamic, and the Servo 15v2, well, what can you say, it moves a ton of air! I am sure the Anthem amp mates very well with it too.

Buy a Blu-ray player ASAP, you should own one and see the benefits now rather than wait. Pre/pro's are a tougher call right now as the new audio codecs of Blu-ray (and HD DVD) are only in a handful of units. That is changing, but slower than with the receiver market. Fortunately for you, Anthem has been very good about keeping their units upgradable, and often for very reasonable costs (given what most others charge)

You seem to like the Anthem/Paradigm sound, but might I suggest the Anthem Statement D1 or D2??? They now come with Anthem's own room correction which I am just finishing a review of and all I can say is WOW! The original D1/2 were amazing for the money, but the addition of the room correction vastly improved the in room sound from the pre/pro, both in my room and in the notoriously difficult hotel room of CES. It is easy to use and should you buy an older unit, can be added on for $399.

[Butch]

I do like the Anthem/Paradigm pairing. They seem to compliment each other pretty well. I really struggled trying to decide on a multi-channel amp within my budget. There are lot's of 'em in this category. The main reason for pulling the trigger on the A5 when I did was to get in under the price increase caused by the falling dollar. Another thing I'll probably do is expand to 7.1 using a P2 for the mains.

A Blu-Ray player is definitely the next addition. If the water pump in my car and the lower unit in my boat hadn't needed repairs this spring I would've already done it.

Is there some trick that I need to know about in order to add photos to this thread? When I follow the instructions in the FAQ's to click on 'Manage Attachments' nothing happens. Could my Firefox browser be the problem?

[rlpiii]

Originally Posted by Butch

. . .Is there some trick that I need to know about in order to add photos to this thread? When I follow the instructions in the FAQ's to click on 'Manage Attachments' nothing happens. Could my Firefox browser be the problem?

There are a few peculiarities to this forum: attachments, avatars, reload the current page, etc. . .
I am hoping that the new company helping run the site will fix some of these bugs.

I prefer Safari for all my web browsing, but it has the most limitations here.
I know some of the moderators are avid apple users, so I was hoping they would help make the site run better with Safari. . . unless they are using a different version of the forum software than we are. . .

I have noticed that Firefox works better than Safari, and sometimes I'll have even better luck with Netscape.
I have not been able to ever post attachments with Safari.
I don't use MS Exploder, and will not try it, so I don't know about how well it works here.

Hopefully, you'll be able to get your pictures up. I know we are all interested in seeing them.

[Butch]

As you can see, I finally got some pictures uploaded. This particular feature definitely does not like Firefox. I had to stoop to I.E. Hope you like 'em.

I have a lot of people ask me where did I buy that shelf system? When I tell them it's a bunch of 1" x 4" 1/8" wall tubes I welded together they can't believe it. Each corner is mitered so that sand can be used to fill the thing up, reducing any resonance in the frame itself. I haven't done that yet 'cause it already weighs about 150# without the glass. It's coupled to the floor with 2" long 3/8" stainless steel bolts that were turned into spikes on a lathe.

[rlpiii]

Your a/v rack looks very nice! It always amazes me how good polished AA looks! AA 6061-T6 is very strong and rigid, so it should definitely last and be able to hold anything you may add in the future. Did you build & design it yourself, or did you have a local machine shop do it all for you?

Do not forget to add only pure audiophile quality sand. . . HA HA.