Price (mine were last years closeout) - at $450 they are amazing, $550 still a great deal Stage and Imaging - sounds are realistic and spacial, the stereo stage is amazing.

None - you need to listen to real music on a real amp, I have a harmon / kardon 510 digital. If you are looking for a "Party Speaker" go to Best Buy these are serious speakers for serious ears, don't insult them by fireing all 200 watts of your systems into them. Made for music, not digi-techno-house crap.

I went in to Audio Labs with a Demo disk of my own with mainly jazz and other acustic music. I was set on getting a pair of Phantoms, but really spent some time look at all of the other comparable speakers. (monitor 1, 5, 7 and Focus, Phantom and titan) I mainly used a track from Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, "So What" I have extensive experience with live Jazz and I was most interested in creating a similar sound stage, nothing like a remastered classic to do that. The montior 5s had the most realism and stage. The high and midranges are very smooth and not overly bright. The base is well defined, not as defined as the 7s, but in fact had more realistic lows. The performance series from paradigm (phantom, titan and focus) were all over exagerated, bright and deep, with sacraficing the midrange smoothness of the monitor series. This is most apparent in piano tracks, the full body and resonance of a piano is seemingly lost in the performance series. My gratitude to the people at Paradigm for creating such amazing products, if you are looking at other speakers from Paradigm they are all amazing and my reviews are from directly compairing the models head to head. My gratitude also goes out to the guys at Audio Labs for allowing me the time to listen in a controled setting to each speaker in the same room, same possitioning and same music. It took 2 hours and we rearanged the store, but it was well worth it. Thanks guys. Note: the speakers pictured here are not monitor 5s, monitor 5s are a tall bookshelf speaker with 1 in high and two 6.5 in mid/lows. the bass port in on the back. I plan to add a CC-270 or CC-370 next, followed by a PDR-12 for home theater appications. My monitor 5s are being used for movies as well, but their main purpose is for stereo music. see http://www.paradigm.ca for more info and other reviews of Paradigm loudspeakers.

Similar Products Used:

Titans, CC 170s AR - Hologram series Harmon Kardon equipment

Bass responce Front surround performance Value for money

Availability in UK! Considering the great centre speakers available, a matching set of rear bipolar''s would be nice!

When I originally set out to but some front speakers, my main consideration was their compatibility with a surround sound setup. I tested many speakers from Inc Mission, JPW and Kef floor standers. Nothing came close to the 5''s low end punch and detail. The only problem was I had to wait 6 months for them to be delivered from Canada! They are now mated with mission 77ds rears and sound like they were made for each other...

Anyone know where to get paradigms on the internet (or in the southern california area) for a good price. Any info would help. jtmoore@lightspeed.net

detail, neutrality, soundstage, depth

A revelation in its price range. My CD collection has taken on a new life. I haven't slept in 3 months!

Price, warranty

"Flat" soundstage, limited depth

I gave Paradigm a chance to live up to the hype. I listened to a pair of these at my local audio store. They sounded pretty good. I figured they would sound even better properly placed, in my listening room. Nope. I compared these to a pair of Signet SL-260 bookshelf speakers I had on hand. No comparison. The Paradigms overall balance was good, but the soundstage was flat as a board and the was no depth! Boring! Maybe a break-in period was needed. I played them for another 2 weeks and then did the comparison again: Same results and a bonus! One of the tweeters started leaking! Nice. Great Party speaker. Not recommended. I have to laugh at some reviews where the person states something like: "This speaker brought the musicians right into the room." "Just like being there." Yeah right! No speaker system can create that kind of atmosphere. Especially with present day Digital Crap. (ie:mp3)

Similar Products Used:

Kef Q-50 Signet SL-260

sound stag is huge,detailed even at low volume levels.

I've owned these speakers for nearly a year now and I must say that they just keep impressing me more each time I listen to them.I love listening to these at night when everybody is in bed,and with the volume set low I can still hear all the detail in the music(its so sweet).For only $400 I feel like I ripped off the Paradigm CO.Also they capture all the crushing impacts and the chest thumping gun shots in the movie sound tracks that I have seen.On the whole these speaker have lifted my home entertainment listening to a new level.I like to thank Paradigm for giving me the oppertunity to buy a referance sounding speaker at a affordable price.The way I discoverd these speakers is cool.I went to install a security system in a building that manufactured Angstum speakers.They had all of these Paradigm speakers up on a shelf.I asked some one there if they distributed Paradigm speakers he said no we use them as a reference to try to make a better speaker.WOW.

smooth highs, nice imaging

woofers can't take heavy bass

I love these speakers. After 3 months I still get totally impressed everytime i turn them on. The soundstage is nice(maybe not quite as obvious as the B&W- but i think that's because the B&W are so upper midrange high heavy- where we get most of our spacial cues from)
My only beef is that with some more electronic stuff it is possible to cause the woofers to crack if your amp has decent power. I am not a bass head, but would like to move to the monitor 60 or 80's so i can play the bass a little louder.
In short- THe best speaker for the money. !
If you have more, add a sub, or go for the monitor 60's

Similar Products Used:

b&w 602, BA A70's (still like them), paradigm atoms

compares with speakers double it's price

none so far

These were some of the first speakers that we demo'd. We didn't realize just how great they were until we started listening to other speakers and their price kept going up in order to compare to the Monitor 5's. We were looking at thousand dollar speakers to equal the five hundred dollar Paradigms. Their base is more that adequate for stereo listening( and is very 'tight') and the soundstaging is excellent at all volume levels. We are very pleased with them and they sound great from anywhere within our 'average' sized living room. They are also nice in that they are not overly large in size and they easily fit a room's decor. We actually had a pair of a competitor's speakers at home for a day but returned them due predominantly to their overly large size for our living room.In the showrooms these competetors seemed on par with the monitor 5's . We had opted to go with this more expensive speaker assuming they had more value(blissful ignorance). However once we got the paradigms hooked up, the improvement in sound was incredible. The previous speakers had been far more expensive and far less balanced ( muddy overwhelming bass ). Too bad home demos weren't more possible as the different showrooms didn't show the extent of just how good the monitor 5's are.

Similar Products Used:

boston accoustics, psb, heco, mission, polk audio,mirage

Amazing high's and mid's. The low output from this speaker is also VERY good. Size is perfect for most rooms. Looks Sharp. Gold plated binding posts.

Only a single 6.5 inch low driver. The speaker puts out a lot of bass, but it wasn't designed for this.

After almost a year of looking for the perfect speaker (for me at least) I was finally able to pick the monitor 5's up for only $360! I was seeing them for $550 a few months back and they are well worth that, but what a deal! Straight out of the box, these speakers sound awesome. The bass is tight on them too. Watch U-571 on dvd and hear for yourself. Overall I am very happy with them. Highly recommended.

I tested several speakers before making my decsion. The mini monitors ARE as good as they say and I almost bought them, but the 5's have a larger cabinet and better low output. Plus you don't need stands. The Monitor 3's have only average highs on them, I didn't like them. The B&W 601 sounded much like the mini monitors. The B&W 602's sounded the best but they cost twice as much and were not worth the extra $300. If you can find them for $500 or less though, go for them.

Just my 2 cents.

Similar Products Used:

Mini Monitors, Monitor 3, B&W 601, B&W 602

smooth sound,great highs ( titanium tweeters )

none

great sound for a smaller tower speaker they really sound natural with my Yamaha 595 , ther is more than enough bass,
and the highs are great , the midrange is also nice you cant go wrong with these speakers I looked at some PSB ,Missions , infinity & these were the best by far.

Similar Products Used:

paradigm monitors 3& 7's