Question on Ascend 340 speakers. (1 Viewer)

Currently I have a yamaha x675 receiver powering an old Paradigm MONITOR 5 5.1 setup. My rears finally went out on me and was looking to get some new speakers. I was considering moving my paradigms to my upstairs to my upstairs tv and getting the 340s for my fronts and center and some 170s for my surrounds.My room is 13 x 13 with 8ft ceiling. Will my receiver be capable of properly powering the 340s given the higher minimum wattage rating?This system is used for 90% home theater and 10% music.Thanks for any help.

Those Ascend are 90db efficient.The new Monitor 5 v5 is 89(based on how Ascend comes up with 90).Not sure what efficiency your 5 are. But, the 340 is likely to require...less power.

The paradigm monitor 5 are really old and I can't find the efficiency rating on them. They are rated at 10 to 100 watts. They are the old towers. Probably around 10 years old.

10 years is "old"...yikes.My DCM TF(circa 1987) must be farting dust out their transmission lines...Anyway...Ohm load and efficiency are(power wise) the specs that matter.Min and max is nothing but a guide.

Since I'm 30 years old I guess 10 years old seemed long to me my fronts are still kicking strong...thank you for the help!

No problem.Report back on the Ascend. They don't get much "review" 'round here.

I owned the old Monitor 5s, and I liked the Monitor 5s.. The 340SEs would be a definite upgrade from them IMO. I've heard the 340s a number of times and find them slightly north of neutral in terms of brightness and have a VERY nice, even midrange that is highly detailed, though the overall presentation is a bit "sterile" with them being so neutral. I listened to a wide variety of music genres on them and found them to be good with pretty much everything across the board. I don't think you'd be disappointed with them coming from the Monitor 5s.

John Garcia said:

I owned the old Monitor 5s, and I liked the Monitor 5s.. The 340SEs would be a definite upgrade from them IMO. I've heard the 340s a number of times and find them slightly north of neutral in terms of brightness and have a VERY nice, even midrange that is highly detailed, though the overall presentation is a bit "sterile" with them being so neutral. I listened to a wide variety of music genres on them and found them to be good with pretty much everything across the board. I don't think you'd be disappointed with them coming from the Monitor 5s.

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Thank you for the first hand experience response. It's been hard to figure out what would be comparable to the paradigms / an upgrade since they haven't been available for quite some time. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

The 5s were good with the CC-370. When I upgraded to my other speakers, I kept them as surrounds until I eventually upgraded those as well. I had them for maybe 3-4 years and was not let down by them - I liked the punchy midrange and high sensitivity. Paradigm of that era tended to be a tad bright for me and I moved to a softer sounding speaker after comparing the Studio 40s and what I ended up buying (GR Research A/V-2, custom DIY build). The 340s are close to what the Studios of that same era were like, though the power handling and bass of the studios was superior. The Studios were also about 2X the price though, and the Asends deliverd about 80% of the sound capability, making them a good value then and now.

I ended up ordering the ascend 340 fronts and center and 170 for my surround duty. I've had them for about a week now. With lots of different movies. I'm not by any means an audiophile. First thing I did notice was how much less I had to turn up my receiver to get the same volume which was great.

I've had the opportunity to try several different movies with them. I opted to break them in with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition. Followed by the StarTrek reboot and tonight 2012 (cheesy movie but lots of explosions/sound effects and I love a bad disaster movie lol) I tested out some music as well...mostly hip hop, rap, and some metal/rock. Didn't purchase these for music but thought I'd try it out.

Overall very happy with my purchase and a solid upgrade from my original speakers.

The speakers came very well packaged. I opted to build my own stands using some metal ikea legs filled with sand and some squares of walnut I cut to size. Rather than the ones ascend sells.

Thanks again for the feed back made me feel much better about blindly buying these.