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Review NaN of
, from Des Moines
Price Paid:
$450.00
from Audio Labs Summary:
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. Strengths:
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. Weaknesses:
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. Similar Products Used:
Titans, CC 170s
AR - Hologram series
Harmon Kardon equipment
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