Paradigm Monitor series vs Studio series

Welcome!Take your time and listen to as many speakers as you can before making a choice.Dont limit yourself to one brand.Monitor Audio also makes some very nice sounding speakers .Ask yourself what you want soundwise,how loud you listen,size of room,trust your ears,make sure speakers are compatible with your room and rest of your system.Try to alieviate any major room issues before blaming equipment,,,tackling your room early on will save you a ton of money!And have fun!Ray

I own the studio 20's and 60's (vers. 2) and use them exclusively for home theater. They are quite good and better than many here would like to admit; however, I feel the metal tweeters used by Paradigm prevent them from being an optimal two channel speaker. With the wrong amp they could be quite fatiguing. If you are looking for a two channel only monitor, I would suggest starting with something used here on A'gon, such as Tylers, Merlin, Proac, Usher, Silverline, etc.

I have to agree with Cruz123 ... I have owned 20's, 40's in v2 and v3 versions, the original Reference 100’s and Signature S4's and S2's. Right now I am running 40 v3, ADPs with a CC-570 center … soon to add 20 v3’s for a 7.1 setup on all Rotel power. This is all home theater – music is limited to 5.1 concerts and on-demand stuff. The Paradigm metal tweeters just don’t make the cut on 2 channel with the solid state amps I have tried. I have run them with Mark Levinson, Sunfire, Harmon Kardon, Nakamichi and classic Pioneer Spec – when I went with tubes they sounded much, much better (to me). Better how? Much less fatiguing … the tube amps seem to take the edge off the metal tweeter.

I can listen to tunes on my 5.1 setup – but when you switch to the little Aerials on a Mac 275 – It’s so much more enjoyable. If you haven’t already, try them with a tube amp. For the money they are a great buy but you have to learn how to tame them.

I ended up with Aerial acoustics in my two channel room. I wanted to get away from metal tweeters but I fell in love with the model 6’s ability to image. As for bass – stick with the 40’s 60’s or the 100’s. The 40’s will surprise you – even with Nickleback cranked up and the 40 seems to match up real well with a sub, I use a Seismic 12. The 100’s are flat dangerous. I personally like the v2 line the best but have gone with the v3’s in black for the WAF. I have seen more than a few posts slamming the Paradigm line but I can only say the power you drive them with is important. They are not Aerial 20t’s or Dynaudio Confidence C2’s but they don’t cost 20 grand. I think they are one of the best bang for the buck speakers around – especially used.