Speaker dilemma. Paradigm 100s, 60s or Monitor 11s (1 Viewer)

[John_J_Allison]

I'm in a similar boat as Evan. 40s front, 20s rear, CC.

I had planned to up the fronts to 100s and rotate the others back, even bought stands to match the 40s tweeter height to the 100s, but my new townhouse is actually smaller in the HT room than the old apartment. So now I'm keeping the 40s as my fronts forever, and thinking about another pair of 20s for rear center.

Anyways, since you want full-range, go with the 60s. (If OTOH you go small and use the sub all the time, get the 40s.) IMHO unless your room and amp are BIG you won't need the 100s. Oh and I also agree with Howard_S, continue to ignore the 80s, they seem to be a rather different speaker, with different drivers and crossovers.

 

[RobertW]

why would paradigm be coming out with a monitor v3 so soon? the v2 hasn't been out for much more than a year, if that. and usually it's 3 or so years between changes in paradigm's line. the v2 reference came out around 1999 if i'm not mistaken, so they are due for an update. but not the monitor line. unless they want to make speaker changes like other companies do recievers.

 

[Randy Prue]

I listened to the 40s and 60s at a very friendly dealer, who let me poke and prod every setting, placement, etc. The 40s sounded better to me (the Monitors were out of the question, sound is horribly dull and muffled).

To my mind, bigger is better for speakers, but I preferred the 40s (clearer, lots of bass)... footnote... neither sounded as good as my old Pioneer CS-549s, so I was waiting for the 80s and 100s to arrive to give them a good listen.

In the meantime, I read What Hi*Fi's January 2002 article about speakers (starts on page 110). They compared bookshelf to floorstanders (Wharfedale, B&W, Dynaudio, and Mission). In 3 cases out of 4, the smaller speakers delivered more sound, better sound. They indicate in a sidebar article that it's logical, because, blah, blah, blah.

To me, this explained why the 40s could sound better. I suppose it also means you WILL be using a sub-woofer. The article (and the speaker stand article following it) emphasizes the importance of GOOD stands, to bring out the best of the small speakers (in some cases, it's what makes them sound better than the floorstanders.

I'm using Athenas now; the 80s and 100s never arrived, so I don't know any more than that about the Studio Reference line, but I decided to try the Athena surrounds as fronts, to see how they compare to the floorstanders.

Short version: I would recommend investigating the advice in someone else's post to use the Studio 40s on good stands.

 

[Tony Meconiates]

I am having the same problem deciding between the 20, 40 and 60's...