One of the best speakers I have ever heard and I have been into audio since the 1960’s. The strengths include a spacious soundstage and both high efficiency and extreme accuracy. These speakers are capable of realistic reproduction as their output in decibals can reach levels approaching 120 decibals with the right setup and source material.

The only criticism I have of these speakers 🔊 is that they can exhibit too much presence in the upper bass region ( or lower midrange depending on how you view it ) due to both of the woofers being active in this frequency range. All other frequencies being reproduced by a “super tweeter of Danish manufacture which give superior dispersion and imaging. This speaker’s origin came from the development of a monitor for the. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Not sure what year these 9se mk3 are so i put in 2000,regardles,these speakers absolutly pound
Rush tom sayer,zz top fandango,pink floyd never sounded so good.The best of Sade sounds

incredible,outstanding bass on these speakers,im runnig these speakers with a Marantz,yes thats a Marantz 2252b old school.. real power.. amplifire with a sony ps-4300 turntable for vinyl records and a cambridge audio cd player.Speakers cost me $160.00-amp $240.00 turntable $100.00 and $100.00 for the cd player all used,for a grand totall of $600.00 i have killer sound system without breaking the bank.So for those who keep chasing the dream of audio perfection,save your money,remember why you listen to music in the first place,the music!!! Some people seem to forgoten that.

I've recently spent some time researching my audio equipment, really just for piece of mind. I was certainly conscience of my money spent or in some case a real find. But I wonder, now knowing, how the equipment matches or in some cases complements each other? So, what kind of goods and bads are a product of; (2) Paradigm 9se's and a Sansui au-8500 amp fed from itunes?? Curious of what better read guys think because its been great in my opinion.

I purchased a pair of Paradigm 9se (no mk nuthin') in 1988.
I stick to my Denon DCD and drive these with a Denon DRA
(see Stereo Review cover sometime in 1988 after I bought these)
from pre-out to Nakamichi PA-5. No additional anything.
These were hands down the best sounding speakers I listened to in the
listening room for days before purchasing... that included a Paradigm
3 way model.
(I remember them sounding better to me than some Ohm pyramid
things that could come in black laquer for 1000;s more...
The 2 way speaker was surprising in that
to my ear it was very full across the entire range... again to my ear...
but since I can only listen with my ears.. what else matters.
The voice coils provide a very crisp hi end... and satisfying to me but
I did have an issue frying voice coils although parts were readily available.
OK, I USE my stuff!!
I felt that if I allowed the speakers to "warm up" I could put the coals to 'em
without worry. I like the fact that these are 4 ohm speakers in that
they are very efficient. While I wont do the math my 100W/channel amp is actually
delivering ~150 RMS /.
I purchased these in 1988 and a couple years ago I fryed a
voice coil again. A call to Paradigm and I had a new set of coils. This time
I had a shop that had the ferro-fluid clean and install the coils
for me this time. VERY PLEASED... I probably should have had this done
initially! OK... so 23 years of heavy use ... TREMENDOUS
While I still have the original bill of sale... I seem to think they were around
$700 / pr. If you are buying these up .... Id say huge BARGAIN can be had here.

can anyone please tell me if paradigm 9se speakers are a nice starter speaker i,m a first time buyer and no very little about audio i have a nad t753 receiver is this a half decent setup i bought the speakers for $75 and 150 for the receiver

This is about the 9se MK II, they are real nice speakers with great detail. The bass is plenty and I love the highs and mids so classy. Well built, and on pedestals they tend to have great sound stage. I really like when listening to Jazz n Blues kinda they really shine.

This is about the 9se MK II, they are real nice speakers with great detail. The bass is plenty and I love the highs and mids so classy. Well built, and on pedestals they tend to have great sound stage. I really like when listening to Jazz n Blues kinda they really shine.

Generally fidelity, imaging, value.

Sound stage depth, detail, low end resolution.

I've lusted after Paradigm's since I was first into audio gear in the 80's as a teenager. I recently fulfilled that craving - picking up a pair of 9SE's for a bargain price.

In the time between lusting after the Paradigms and actually acquiring them - I have been lucky enough to build up a rather serious "stack" of quality gear. (Adcom, Krell, Parasound, Nordost, Kimber etc)

So it was into this rather heady system that I slipped the 9SE's recently.

For a bargain price - I was fairly impressed and the other reviews here will attest to the good points.

But I have the good fortune to review this against some truly audiophile speakers while driving them with top-quality equipment. So I'll focus more on how they compare (somewhat favourably) to high-end gear.

Paired with excellent electornics - these are fine speakers. But they have thier shortcomings...

First off, they seem to have a mild spike around 800-1000hz - giving a bit of "whack" to percussion instruments.

Imaging is very good, the speakers almost "disappearing", stereo separation being excellent.

But most challenging is the "flateness" that they exhibit. While resolution is generally very good - there is no "air" or "space" around the notes. And whlile the sound stage is fairly broad - it's too shallow. There's no depth to the sound stage.

The worst exhbition of this down low. Such a large cabinet with twin ports should have nice round bottom end - but the 9SE seems to just roll off, and too soon as well. The is no "underside" to the lower notes - and certainly no air for them to float on.

This (and the inability to eak out precise detail and resolution) seperates a merely "very good" speaker (which these certainly are) from a great speaker, which these most certainly aren't.

With these being available for only a couple of hundred dollars, they are a bagain and certainly worth trying. But recognize there is MORE detail, MORE low end and a MORE realistic representations of the recording available.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Monitor 3, Polk 5Bs, Disimilar products: Vandersteen 2C's, Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy

The best imaging and most lifelike sound I've ever heard out of sub-$1,000 loudspeakers. Great customer service, too. I burned a tweeter in my original pair by overdriving them to insanely loud levels at a house party while using too small of an amp that almost certainly clipped. Paradigm sent me a new tweeter at no charge, no questions asked.

They are low impedance speakers (4 ohms), and I burned up two receivers early on with my first pair because the low impedance caused them to draw more current than the receivers could handle. With a good amp/receiver capable of driving 4 ohm loads, however, they are awesome.

These were the first high-end speakers I ever bought. I went into Absolute Sound in Ann Arbor, Michigan, planning to buy something else. The salesman suggested that I listen to these, and boy am I glad I did. I auditioned a half dozen pairs of speakers that day, and none of them came close to the pure, detailed sound of the Paradigms. The soundstage was incredible -- as lifelike as I had ever heard out of a hi-fi system. It came down to the 7se or the 9se, and I ended up stretching to get the 9se because the 7's seemed to lose a little something down low at higher levels, while the 9se's never faltered.

That was in 1988. It's now 2006. In the last 18 years, I moved many times, got married, had kids and ... sold off the 9se's in a garage sale in 1996 or so. About 5 years ago I built a new hi-fi home theater system. Try as I might, I could never get it to sound "right." I vividly remembered the sound of the Paradigms with some of my favorite recordings, and nothing else I tried did them justice. Then I found a pair of beat-up 9se's on ebay. I bought them cheap ($200). The enclosures are beat up and the gouged, and they look awful. But, oh, do they sound great. As soon as I hooked them up and put in "Night Train" by Rickie Lee Jones, I was in heaven. They are smooth, natural, precise and lifelike -- just like I remembered.

I understand that the current version of these speakers are sold by Paradigm as the Monitor 9. I haven't auditioned them, but if they're anything like the 9se, you'll love them.

Similar Products Used:

After rediscovering the 9se's, I bought a Paradigm Reference Series home theater system with Studio 60 fronts, CC450 center and ADP450 surrounds. We're using them in our main room in large part because they look a lot nicer than the beat-up 9se's. To my ears, however, the much more expensive Studio 60's don't sound any better than the 9se's.

Clear, pure, sound reproduction.

Could have a little more base.

I bought these speakers matched to a hk385i amp in 1987. To this day these speakers deliver crystal clear sound at any volume I choose to push them at.