Neutral sound, smooth response

Great sounding speaker, especially for the price and size. Add a PW-2200 and it is near perfection.

Similar Products Used:

JBL LX-22, B&W

Amazing imaging, crisp spine tingling highs, attractive look, price, build quality...to many to mention

I little bit short on the bass side...but then again we are talking about a 6 1/2 inch woofer.

These speakers, I must say, are a work of art for this price.
I paid 339 Canadian and got the banana plugs and 50 ft of wire for free. (I bought 2 pairs, front's and rears) Now as I was told then need brake in time...and they do. There was relativley no bass right outta the box. At first I had them sitting on top of my old tower speakers, but trust me, stands make a world of difference. I bought the same ones that are pictured on the paradigm site. I keep them about a foot out from the corner of the room...will move them out a bit farther when I get a little more space. But after I threw pretty much every thing I had at them (Saving Private Ryan, Metallica, Trance and House music, Rap, 1812 overture) the better they sound. Yesterday I was listening to Paradise City and Rock you like a Huricane and the highs were piercing through me...but weren't harsh they were very clear and crisp at such a high listening level (well above reference level). So for music they are great...must have a sub or Monitor 7 or 7p...like I said good bass but it is only a small woofer. Now on DVDs...shockingly good. Of course the were good coming right out of the box...but give them about 40 hours or so of a good workout and put them on stands and your dvds come to life. There was a scene in Ronin during the last car chase scene the I thought a car passed through my room...that was after the break in period. There is also a scene in the Astronauts Wife where a glass is dropped and shatters on the ground and you feel every high from each piece of glass going flying. Honestly...after using these the way I do...and after the break in period I cannot recommend these speakers enough. It is probably the best buy around. Get a good sub, PW2200 is what I have, that way you can let the Minis shine in midbass, mids, and highs.
Best speaker on the market for this price.
BOOM!

Similar Products Used:

PSB minis, Energy take 5

I am not going fill you in on the quality of this product. Majority of the people who own these know they are nothing short of amazing, for what they are. A few posters have stated that they are not sheilded. They post this in the weakness section. I am sorry to inform you that it is not a weakness. As a buyer you have a choice between sheilded or non-sheilded. My speaker ensemble consists of a pair of Mini Monitors for surrounds, Monitor 7' for fronts, CC-350 for ceneter and PW 2200 doing the bass work. They are all sheilded (I'm not sure about the sub). I had to special order them that way.

So if you like the speaker, don't be shy to ask about sheilding, for it IS available

performance/price ratio

very heavy for the size

The sound from mini are very natural. They match very well with Yamaha receivers. The tweater is very somoth compare to the tweater on Atoms, the male and female voices are very natural.

I have not get my center speaker yet. My option for center is either a CC-350 or one shielded mini. There are three advantages for me to use one mini over cc-350 for center. First is that Dobly and THX recomends that three front speakers should be identical. Second is that it costs half of a CC-350 for a mini. Third is a with one mini, there is no lobing effect that with speaker of woofer-tweeter-woofer. However, Paradigm sells mini in pairs, so I have to buy a pair of shielded mini and sell one. If anyone else want one mini to match his/her mini at front, e-mail me. Thanks.

Similar Products Used:

RT-15, RT-25, Atoms

bass, mid, highs

not found yet

The Mini Monitors are great speakers. I initially got a Pioneer VSX-D508 receiver with Atoms, I thought that was good, then I upgraded my receiver to Yamaha 595a, that improved Atoms a lot. So I decided to get Mini Monitors to justify Yamaha receiver. They work great. If you have a regular Pioneer receiver, you are not going to get full potential of Mini Monitors or even Atoms. You need to have decent receiver to get full performace of these good speakers. I have PDR-10 to handle bass.

By the way, my Paradigm dealer has been great to me, my purchase price is even LOWER than previous reviewer Jody's even I ordered a vidoe shielded version, which gives me a lot flexibility in placment around TV. Video shielded version cost at least $20 to $40 more for a pair. I can only tell you my price by e-mail. If you are around Indiana, you can come to my Paradigm dealer and get good deals on any Paradigm speakers. If you are far from IN, I can ship them for you by doing my dealer a favor. Paradigm does not allow their dealers to ship Paradigm to other dealer's teritory. E-mail me for info if you want purchase new Mini Monitors from my dealer.

Even at full MSRP, Mini deserves 5 stars, based on my purchase price, they deserve 6 stars.

Similar Products Used:

Atoms, Polk RT15, Infinity RS1, Bose 21, Pioneer,

Good volume, tight bass for a small speaker, great mid-range

Harsh tweeter

Overall not a bad speaker, blends well with my velodyne CT-100 sub. I have only been disappointed with the harshness of the tweeter. I like my highs bright and clear, and so far, these are bright but definetly harsh. I have all of my tone controls set flat. I tried cutting some treble out, that only caused them to sound a little chesty. I am still tweaking my system, and hope that I can achieve a little more out of the monitors.
On the upside, the build quality is great, the price is excellent, and overall its a good speaker for the money. I liked the B&W tweeter alot more, but the mids and bass levels just weren't there. The NHT's build quality scared me off, even though it probably shouldn't have. I just don't like paper cones. The Infinity's sounded exactly like what they are, mass-marketed jam-box speakers. I remember the days when Infinity made great speakers, even owned a couple of sets. Even recently the Delta series reminded me alot of the old stuff. However, space limitations lead me to sell the Delta's.
I am not un-happy with my choice of the mini-monitor's, they just aren't nearly perfect. I do feel like I am getting my money's worth and then some.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 601s2, NHT Super-one, Infinity RS-3, Mission (forget the model)

Low end for small speaker. Very clear mids and highs. Female vocals sound great.

Bass can be muddy listening to rock music.

These speakers for the money are be hard to beat. Picked my up for $270 pr. US. Went to the audio store to buy the Titans but when I heard these back to back it was well worth the extra $90 bucks.
When loking for a pair of small speakers for a 12*16 room, I wanted something that would have good bass response not knowing when I would buy a sub. These speakers did the trick. At the time I bought these I had also listened to Polk, Infinity, PSB, and B+W. I felt the B+W and Mini Monitors would have suited me fine. I went with the Pardigm based on the lower end.
As mentioned above at home the Minis can have somewhat of a muddy bass response with some music. To help fix this I placed the speaker backs about 18 inches from the wall. I feel the speakers sounds best with using my recievers low end cutoff (Yamaha 595a) when listening to music. (of course you need a sub.) The only other problem I have had with these speakers is that I can bottom the drivers out at approx. half volume with the yamaha reciever, even with the low end cut off on.
If you can find a better speaker for aroud $300 buy it!

Similar Products Used:

Genesis 210, Polk 5jr., Bose 203 III,

This speaker is a great sounding bookshelf. The bass is deep and tight. Amazing for a speaker of this size. I can't believe how accurate and neutral these little speakers are! I use these for the rear surrounds of my home theater. Put them with a PS1200 and you have a great sounding front end for both music and movies.

Bang for Buck Ratio. Bass, built quality.....the list goes on...

no bi-wiring, not the best for classical music, but not bad

Well, what can i say that hasnt already been said... First off, i should list the gear i'm using with them:

Denon DCM 370
B&O 2402 Turntable
Naim integrated amp ( 20Wx2 class A)
Paradigm PDR-8 subwoofer
Monster cable 14g throughout

I know, i know, the Naim diserves better speakers, but those we're all i could afford. A setup like this one is bound to show the speakers limitations, and not the amps'. They are my first mid-fi speakers, but i did quite a bit of research to make sure i was getting the best deal out there.

Now, enough with the side note, let's get to the real issue: the sound.
The first thing that strikes is how bass these things can produce. It's also very well controlled. The Studio 20 are a bit better in this regard, but close to twice the price, so, in another league.

Secondly, soundstaging. It's very hard to actually tell that the sound is coming from the speakers ( depends on recording of course). They really disappear and just fill the room with sound. The music doesnt float around like what i've heard from a Wilson Cubs/Mark Levinson combo, but again, that's a different league.

One thing i dont understand is why people say these speakers are bright. I've listened to a pair of LINN speakers with textile tweeters on the same system and they sounded much brighter. The brightness must be coming from your gear...

As for HT, well, IMHO, any speaker that does well with music should do very well with HT. And these dont disappoint. They're very punchy and clear.

I do admit they're not the best for classical music, and i attribute this to the fact that they are so warm. Personnally, classical music constitutes about 5% of my music collection, so i'm not bothered.

Overall, they are a great buy. The only weaknesses can be explained by it's very low price ( no bi-wiring), and the fact that they we're probably targeted towards HT and music at the same time.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, PSB, Mission, Signet, Totem....

These are excellent bookshelf speakers for the money. Of course, stands and proper placement is necessary, but the sound is fantastic with all kinds of music. Female voices sound much richer with these than with the Atoms. I was blown away by the sound in the showroom and like them better the longer I have them. For their price range, they are top of the line and a good match for my Onkyo TX-DS 575.