In reply to:
Bren, it's quite refreshing to see someone else on this board who isn't incurably infected with the "must buy biggest, baddest" syndrome.
Well, in each case, this is one facet of a full lifestyle - some people devote 100% to one thing, I want a good sounding HT system without giving up my nest egg, other hobbies or the respect of my S/O. I need to fill the living room (actually a basement rec room) with sound for movies (of which I watch maybe one a week, I'm hardly a movie buff), television shows (the only time I seem to spend with above mentioned S/O - she's a lawyer, and I keep my plate full - though I now know FAR too much about her soap operas!) and music when I'm in the kitchen (I've got an H-K CD carousel in my office running into my soundcard and out through my old 2.1 self-powered Altec Lansings - from when they still had a Portable line for hooking up to a discman or what have you for instant tailgate parties)
And in the end, I'm on my way to a great sounding HT system - still have to fill in the sub and replace my scratch built centre with a VP100 - I didn't break the bank and it's what I need.
Some people enjoy listening at high levels and more power to them (pun intended) but it's not my bag - I'm at the point in my life where I wear hearing protection to concerts and I prefer fidelity over volume. When I'm done, I'll have pretty much the Epic Master system without the EP175, it's a well-matched system in my opinion - you've got the cojones to annoy the neighbours if you want but they also handle music listening at "someone's upstairs sleeping" levels very well.
Now to make a convert out of my brother. He's a dyed in the wool Paradigm guy (I used to be a big fan of Klipsch and Paradigms as well) and insists now on A-Bing a set of the Monitor series bookshelves against the Axioms, I say bring 'em on!
Bren R.
