Hello all. I hope to begin diversifying my collection in the near future with some earlier solid state machines and am seeking some advice from the collective on which combination I should consider. I've narrowed it down to four that I really like, but due to space constraints, I'll only be able to purchase two anytime in the next few years. I've put some time on all of them, but some more than others and haven't had any of them available to really play regularly so I'd really value input from anyone who's owned some combination of them. Primarily interested in similarities, longevity in a smaller collection, accessibility to guests, etc. Looks and price differences don't really matter much to me (I guess I would say Paragon is the best looking but I consider each to be beautiful). Some specifics:

Black Hole:
This is a long-time wanted game of mine and an admitted front-runner for me. Love the theme, lower playfield, multiball, etc.

Embryon:
Didn't think I would care much for this one before playing it, but ended up really enjoying it. Seems to be a good number of things to do and I tend to enjoy games with captive balls for whatever reason. Wife really hates the way it looks though due to the "interesting" artistic choices made with the center of the playfield. It would be a tough sell to her.

Paragon:
Beautiful, challenging, great sounding, and a lot of people seem to love it, but honestly I feel I enjoyed the play less than the other games on this list. Its also the one I've played the least on this list though, so that may have something to do with it.

Sorcerer:
Here's where the "ish" comes in. A bit of an outlier on this list since its not a widebody, has a ramp, and is a bit newer than the others. That said, its close enough for my purposes. It's also the one I've probably spent the most time on (it's addictive to me). I really enjoy the sounds when I've played it, but kinda wondering if they would eventually get a bit grating after I've had it for awhile.

In an effort to avoid a bunch of "Have you tried Centaur?" responses, yes, I've also played and do enjoy other oft-recommended games from this era (Centaur, Fathom, Medusa, EBD, FG, etc.), but for various reasons have narrowed it down to these four for the time being.

Thanks for the replies.

For what its worth, I really love all of these games and want to own them all eventually. Not much love for Sorcerer so far in the poll though. Anyone want to chime in as to why? Just because its fairly shallow?

Also, although I know none of these games are truly similar to one another, anyone feel that any of the widebodies might start to feel too similar to each other in a small collection (5-6 pins max) over a few years?

Bump for input from the weekday crowd. Thanks!

Thanks again for the input everyone. Turned out to be much closer in the polls than it originally looked to be. Black Hole seems to have been consistently popular (understandably), with Embryon lagging a bit. I have to wonder though, if that could be because fewer people have played it maybe?

Anyhow, I've decided to just go with High Speed and Pinbot instead.

Or perhaps nice NIB Stern? Anyone have opinions on those?

Eh, i don't think there's too much more to it. I just kind of like the bings and boings. Reminds me a tiny bit of EM chimes sometimes, i guess.

I think Sorcerer is probably the best sounding of the bunch though.

Most of these seem to pop up within reasonable driving distance several times a year at least. Paragon seems to a lot and Embryon less than the others. There was actually a decent looking Embryon a couple of hours away recently, but I never contacted him because I was a little strapped for cash at the time and, also, the wife gave me an evil look whenever I mentioned it.

I generally prefer to start with a nicer machine (particularly cosmetically), but I'm not above putting some work into one and I don't need it to be a high end restoration.