[Victorious25]

Hey everyone,
 
So on a recent visit to San Diego with my family to visit my brother I convinced them to come with me briefly to a Hi-Fi store, since where I live there isn't anything of the sort and I wanted to just browse a little bit. I was up-front with the gentleman working that I wouldn't be buying anything since I was traveling and have relatively little for funds currently, but he didn't mind and demoed a line of Paradigm speakers for my dad and I anyway. Very nice guy. So, fast forward a couple of weeks, and my dad is still talking about how impressed he was with the sound of the speakers (I think they were the Atoms) given their size, and he's interested in getting a simple two speaker setup for in my parents kitchen. They realized that they spend more time watching TV and movies and listening to music in their kitchen than anywhere else, so my dad decided it was time to do a small remodeling job and change up some of the cabinetry in order to fit a 32" TV where currently is a 24". He also wants to have a speaker setup that will sound nice, so he turned to me. And now I'm turning to you all
 
I kind of offered up a price range of $500-600 to him and that seemed acceptable, he's fairly smitten with the Paradigm speakers, but is willing to take my advice if there's something that will sound similar or be a better choice. If I'm not mistaken he will basically need an integrated amp and a pair of book shelf speakers, correct?
 
Any advice or opinion on what I should look for or where to buy would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks,
Victor

 

[Shike]

For the amp side I'd look at something like the NAD C316BEE.  It's roughly $350 though, leaving $250 for the speaker budget.  Speakers I'd consider would be NHT SuperZero 2.0, NHT Absolute Zero (if you can find them $50 cheaper than MSRP for the pair), not sure what the Atom's MSRP at but they may fit too.

 

[Fairbanks]

Go to  www.tsto.com  as they have many to chose from including Paradigm.