My main goal is that the system should be musical and listenable when it comes to long sessions. I do not subscribe to the analogy "Mine is bigger than yours" so I have what I could manage in terms of availability and what I could afford at the time of purchase.
I may change some components at a later stage, since I went through a major revision very recently when I changed my abode and my Maggies had to go due to smaller room that I inherited for music listening.
I tend to give a lot more weightage to reliability in the long run, my Quad 34/405II gave me fantastic service without any hiccups for 7 years and is still with me. The upgrade to 66/606 was for more power that the Paradigms needed. They sound considerably better with the higher power Pre Power combo.
I designed my own speaker stands and they are mass loaded (river sand)each weighing at 37.5 kg with sand for the Paradigms. The stands for LS3/5s's were also self designed and mass loaded with sand and weighing at about 20 kgs each. Both are made of mild steel and have spikes for decoupling from the floor.
for those special sessions where magic is needed in the air
Rogers LS-3.5a
11 Ohm version
REL Acoustics Strata mkIII
Added the low end oomph by incorporating the new toy.
Monster Cable Interlink Reference A
Between amp and Preamp
Monster Cable Interlink 400
Between CD and Preamp
Cable Talk Monitor 3
Two pairs used alternatively
Music Interface Technology Terminator 5
Rather a long length to connect pre to power which are not kept together. The amp is closer to both speakers and hence shorter speaker cable could be utilised
Custom Made Stands (Model N/A)
Self designed with spikes for both Paradigm and Chartwell speakers, filled with river sand