Paradigm question: need small surrounds to go with studio 20 fronts (1 Viewer)

[JonathanOh]

Hi,

I am strongly leaning towards Paradigm Studio 20s/CC in front. The surrounds have to be small so I am thinking Atoms or Paradigm reference inwalls if the wife lets me.

I actually demo'ed the 20s with the Atoms and thought the Atoms worked okay.

Do you think the Atoms would work better than in-walls? I have not heard many good things about in-walls.

 

[Marty M]

I recommend you give the Mini-Monitors a listen. The Monitor series isn't an exact match with Studio series, but a "step up" from the Atoms. I use the Mini-Monitors as surrounds with the Monitor 7's up front.

 

[JamieS]

In wall speakers are great for WAF but are a pain to install and you are pretty limited as to postioning. You can't aim them etc.

Do the speakers need to be small for space reasons or wife reasons? Are you going to mount them on the wall or on stands.

If you are going to do mostly home theatre the Atoms will be "OK" I had them as surrounds with Monitor 7 fronts and they serve the purpose, are easily mounted on the walls and are inexpensive. I doubt you can go with mini montors. I have them as surrounds and they are BIG. They weigh a ton and you need good strong brackets for them. Plus if you have space constraints don't forget they are rear ported and need at least a little clearance behind them.

If you want to DVDA etc. then you probably won't be happy with anything less than STudios front and back.

 

[Jamey F]

I had mini monitors mounted on my walls with the brackets made for the atoms I believe. I had to drill a pair of holes in the back fo the mini-monitors, put in T-nuts, turn the bracket horizontal and feed the bolts into the T-nuts. It worked like a charm with VERY little modification to the mini-monitors (only those two small holes drilled).

The speakers were held about 2-3 inches away frm the wall so port noise was a none issue. I had a total of 4 mounted this way for over a year playing moderate to loud music/computer material. None of them even hinted at falling, but they did strain the brackets pretty well with their weight. I had to tighten them so much that you couldn't move them wihtout loosening the brackets which by their design I would think a lighter speaker could be moved around since you wouldn't have to tighten it so much. I've since upgraded to Studio 20's, and their extra weight makes it impossible to do the same thing.

 

[Jamey F]

Back to your original question though...

I would lean towards the studio inwalls before purchasing the Atoms. And, as JamieS said, you should stay as closely as you can to you front speakers if you are listening to a good amount of DVD-A.

 

[JonathanOh]

Thanks for the replies.

I only listen to music in the car or as background so DVD-A is not likely to be an issue for me.

Space and WAF are the issues. The surrounds will be mounted or in-wall. The Minis are probably too large and it sounds like too heavy. See below for an idea of what my wife thinks about the size of the 20s which IMO are not big. BTW, the guidance she gave to me was to get Bose so Atoms are a big step up in size.


On a related note...

I took the wife to the Paradigm retailer today and she was bumming over how big the 20s were. I pointed out they were signifigantly smaller than what we used to have. Then...I pointed out the center channel Studio-CC. That's a sizeable center.

She grumbled for several minutes but I focused her on picking out the color.

 

[Bolivar G]

Get rid of the wife is she thinks 20's are to big

 

[Jamey F]

yea...the mrs told me the 100s looked large.
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They're living large in my room now

 

[JonathanOh]

sweet