I went and bought a generator for my sister {well she paid for it I just picked the model, did the bargaining and installed it} last week, the machine was $4500 marked with red marker on the tag, I asked "whats the best you can do on this one?" he said "this is it, thats marked down already" I said "oh, well thanks for your time, I'm going to shop around", I started walking towards the door looking at other models on the way out, he almost let me leave, but couldn't resist, I heard "hey let me ask my manager there is any room on that one"- long story short- Its on amazon for $4497 shipped with no tax, I got them down to $3780 delivered after tax, then I said "if you throw in a set of tiedowns I will throw it on my truck rite now and save you from delivering it 40 miles away", so I got a free $40 set of tiedowns too and left with it rite then...
Always ask, I know our local "audiophile" shoppe gives away $100 and $200 visa gift cards like they are candy, not sure if they get them at a discount or what but If you are on the fence about a purchase they throw them things at you... I know when I price a job some times people will call and ask if I can do any better, I always first say "well I can use less expensive equipment, but your service life, comfort level, and energy efficiency will suffer so let me call you back and see if I can sharpen my pencil a little" 15 minutes later I will call back and say " ok 2 options, I can upgrade you to a fancier circulator, or control, or insulate your return duct work {depending on the type of job, I always come up with a little extra to throw in} or I can knock of x amount of dollars {usually 3-5%}, but I make sure the little extra I was going to do is worth more than the knock off price.... 90% of the time they take the insulated duct work or digital thermostats, or what ever I talked them into, sometimes the take the discount, but sadly the customers that don't ask, don't get...
As for the OPs system, did you listen around? I am not a huge paradigm fan, they are great but there is stuff out there for a lot less that is IMO nicer, Im sure you will love this system over the ML's but it seems like you went from one impulse buy to a more expensive one of the same caliber... Isiberian is rite this is a luxury and if you are already having second thoughts maybe start over, and take a week to do a little more research. I tried a lot of speakers for my HT, looks meant nothing to me just bang for the buck was important, and I have never had a second thought since, because I had 6 sets of speakers in my room plugging and placing them for almost a month before I pulled the trigger... I started as a newb in HT because it doesn't really interest me, I am more a 2 ch music guy, but wanted something nice in my living room, so I tested, and tried, and asked, and went around the world for a while looking for what would be perfect... Money was no object BUT if i could buy a set of speakers and a sub for $1000 that fit the bill than I would have, I found that to get a better sound than the package I ended up with would have cost me a lot more money so I went with it... Did you try PSB, I like their sound better than paradigm and they cost much less..
