Amazing mid-range, well integrated sound, "jump" factor makes them so much fun, fast and nimble, no bass overhang, excellent imaging, has scale and power, lets so much detail through, non fatiguing but will show any weaknesses in up stream equipment, well built, good packaging.

Bass not most musical but still good, LONG break in time expect improvement up to 300 hours plus.

Someone has to go first so here I go. The speakers are set up in a 10 ft wide by 15 ft long carpeted room. Placement is according to a formula found on the Cardas web site that seems to work perfectly in my room: distance to side wall = .276 X Room width; distance to back wall .447 X room width. All distances to center of woofer. I have been in the hobby since 96 and have done my share of owning and listening. Upstream is a Meridian 508.24 CD player, Adcom GFP 750 per amp run in passive mode, and balanced interconects, Bryston 4B-ST amp.Keep in mind they sound OK out of the box, great after 50 hours, but will continue to improve and don't reach their best especially in the bass until about 300 plus hours. These speakers break new ground for performance at this price point. They have the best, most accurate treble at anywhere near the price range. You hear the "strike" as well as a very accurate sound on say cymbals. Try listening to King Crimson "the compact king crimson". This is an old CD, 1989, yet It never sounded as good on any of my previous set ups. The mid range is to die for. There is a very quiet background, so when nothing is happening in the music, it is dead silent. They sound good at low levels, great at medium levels and terrific at loud levels. I think they will work well with all kinds of music, but will satisfy anyone who likes a little "jump" factor, the ability to let the "physical" wack! come through along with a nice beat. The bass is very good (not excellent)and well integrated. I do have a 10 db dip at 50 hz in my room with all speakers, so that may be why I don't give the bass an excellent.To rate the sound, what comes out of the tweater is a 9.5, the mid-range a 10, and the woofers a 8.5. Don't get me wrong, the speaker is very well engineered and integrated and you need to make an effort to focus on the individual transducers to describe the different frequencies. This is a deliberate act and hard to do as the overall sound is very well integrated. Compared to the Dynaudio 1.8 Mk II that they replaced, they better them in the treble and mid-range, as well as in overall power and scale, especially in the bass. The Dynaudio's edged ahead in the musicality of their bass line, although they lack total scale and power compared the the Paradigms. My Speaker path has been Mirage bookshelves (back when Mirage did it right), Legacy classics, Dynaudio Contours 50, Dynaudio Contours 1.8 Mk II. Also familiar (but not owned) KEF, B&W, Snell, Ruark. In summary, these speakers are hard to beat at this price point. If Paradigm could make the bass line a little more "musical", this speaker would be a real killer. As is, they are amazing. You wait and see, I guaranty you both Stereophile and TAS will rate them highly, it they get to reviewing them, which I am sure they will. If you value an amazing mid-range, look no further unless willing to spend a lot more!!!

Similar Products Used:

Mirage, Legacy, Dynaudio, B&W, KEF, Ruark, Snell.