I built this system during my last year of college (I graduated in December and finished the system in September, having started it the previous September). My goal was to have a sweet Home Theater experience that I could use during parties and could listen to while studying. I went with MB Quarts since I have them in my competition car audio system (http://www.sounddomain.com/id/bmw328iproject) and have always loved the sound they make. Now that I am becoming a Vinyl lover I will buy a different speaker for my dedicated 2-channel analogue system but for HT and varied stereo listening these babies rock. Let me know what you think!
These are my main speakers and they are pretty damn good for HT and in 2 channel mode have a nice open soundstage. When I make a dedicated 2-channel system I will use different speakers but for $1100 I think I did a pretty damn good job
MB Quart QLS330 center Channel
very nice Center channel with 2 5.25 mids and a 1
MB Quart QLS-530
Surrounds in black. Excellent Bookshelf speaker, matches the 1030 and 330 wonderfully. Makes DTS and DD movies amazing, never makes me turn around and blends in like butter. I couldn't be happier!
Microseiki BL-51x
Awesome table with SME tonearm and Grado Gold cartridge. Very detailed and warm. Excellent imaging and depth. One of the best looking tables of all time!
Grado Prestige Gold
Great cartridge for the $. Mounted on an SME arm. Very detailed and warm. Might upgrade to a Platinum.
Onkyo TX-DS696
I love this unit as a 5-channel receiver, the stereo mode is awesome and it has a pretty decent phono stage. If I were to do it again I would have bought seperates but when I did this I was on a tight budget and this unit does everything I need it to do. For my 2-channel system I will be going tube pre and solid amp.
Paradigm Servo 15
This bad boy is amazing for movies and on 180 gram vinyl realy helps bring out the soundstage in 2-channel mode. SACD's sound amazing with this thing, especially Michael Jackson's Thriller and Marvin Gaye's Midnight Oil. Very tight and accurate sub!
Sony 5-disc SACD player
I am not sure of the model # but I bought it last April and it has served me quite well. I only use it for SACD (my LD player handles CD's) but it is very open and quite detailed especially considering the price. My goal on this system when I started was mostly for HT so I skimped on music source units which I now regret but this unit really does rock for the price.
Pioneer Laser Disc
Late 1996 LD player with AC3 output and seperate CD tray. The video quality is surprisingly good and it is really cool on some concert LD's that don't exist on DVD like Pink Floyd's Pulse and Paul SImon's Concert in Central Park. For CD's it plays wonderfully (OK not as good as a dedicated player but this is not my HiFi 2-chennel system, it is my all around do-everything system). I coupled it to a Sony Digital Processor (only used for the AC3 demodulator so I can get Digital 5.1 on LD's like Aliens and The Fifth Element). A very high quality unit at a damn good price.
JVC 7-disc DVD/DVDA player
I bought this player since it was under $300, played DVDA, and was progressive scan. It has worked very very well and DVDA sound great on it (although I prefer SACD). I have this connected in my multichannel analog inputs while my Sony SACD player uses 2 channel analog inputs (since I prefer the stereo sound of SACD). Fleetwood Mac's Rumors and Metallica's Black Album aound amazing through this player and it really brings out the accuracy of the MB Quart Titanium tweeter.
Monster Uknown
Decent Monster Cable interconnects (I know they aren't Hifi but I wasn't gonna blow the budget for this system on the cables, I'll save that for my 2-channel deal)
Monster Bi Wire
With Gold Plated banana plugs. I don't know the model # but they are thick and white
