Paradigm Studio 60 V5 Fingernails on Chalkboard

I've been where you are. I am particularly sensitive to high frequencies, and if you are like me, then you'll need a wholesale replacement of your system. But you may not be like me ...

I had a pair of the Paradigm Studio 20 speakers and the metal dome tweeter drove me crazy. I'm sure room acoustics played a role, and while my room is very much treated today, it wasn't back then. I would not keep the Paradigm speakers, but that's just me.

Amplifier choice may in fact drive fatigue, as does choice of source component (DAC, CD player, etc). My experience with AVRs is generally not good, to my ears, many of them sound brittle and harsh. I do not think the Denon AVR is not doing you any favors here.

There are many choices of course, many things you can try. You said you were interested in low cost components, so in your shoes, I'd consider giving the PeachTree Audio Decco 2 a try. There are a number of resellers with different return policies so you can try it at home and see how it works with your room and your speakers, and would let you see if the Paradigms are in fact the issue here.

There's no free lunch in this world, and my experience so far tells me that it's possible to get "detailed", "transparent" and "smooth and relaxed" all at the same time, but you pay more dearly for that.

The speaker is indeed 90% of the sound, it gives you the fundamental character of your system, but the remaining 10% can mean a lot.

I think cables are snake oil. Buy good quality csbles at Blue Jeans cable and be done with it. If you hear any difference, it can likely be attributed to the power of suggestion.

You should decide what your budget will be and let a dealer or the people here suggest synergistic components that meet your budget.

Sounds like your amplifier is the responsible party.

This seems like a reasonably priced tube integrated:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?intatube&1293064678

Here is a solid state amplifier which was not fatiguing to me and is a bargain of a price:

http://store.virtueaudio.com/product-p/vrtu-ia-vaone.2-pbf-1.htm

The Virtue guys have a good return policy, so if it doesn't solve the problem, return it!