Price Paid:  $1500.00 from Q Audio, Cambridge M

Summary:
I love the Paradigm 90P speakers! What a great loudspeaker choice for mains in an apartment or condo, one that can be used for both serious music listening and for home theater. The Paradigm 90P loudspeakers allowed us to get some serious bass output without the need for a separate subwoofer which takes up valuable real estate in a New York City apartment. (Trust me, the apartments are small.) The Paradigm 90Ps are accurate, with a good deep soundstage, and are very musical. For the moment, we are powering them with a NAD 7240 PE erceiver with 40 watts per channel (plus headroom) until we upgrade the receiver. Given its limitations, the sound quality is quite good. We found the bass management controls on the powered subwoofer to ber pretty intuitive and easy to use, even without studying the well written manual. The spiked feet on the 90Ps are very much needed, and although your significant other may not like what they do to the hardwood floors, such is audio. We can't wait to add a Paradigm center channle and rears to the system. For the record, I also have Paradigm 5SE loudspeakers in my office, Paradigm Atoms in the kitchen, and Paradigm Studio Monitors with a P1000 subwoofer in another high-end system elsewhere. The entire Paradigm line provides tremendous bang for the buck.

Strengths:
Great value, outstanding sound quality, deep soundstage, easy to set up and adjust the bass management/subwoofer settings. Nice finish!

Weaknesses:
Very heavy, spkied feet can damage hardwood flowers and threaten marriages.

Similar Products Used:
Avid monitors, Boston Acoustics minis, Polk 5 Mini monitors, Paradigm 5SE monitors , Paradigm Atoms, Paradigm Export Studio Monitors, Paradigm 1000 subwoofer.

Price Paid:  $1398.00 from Palmer Audio

Summary:
Much of the detailed information on these speakers has been written in the previous reviews, so I will not go into the same details. However, my comments are on the Version 2, which has three 8 inch drivers for bass reproduction, not two. I am very, very happy with this purchase. These speakers for the cost are quite remarkable. Cost was $1398 and after careful consideration of other brands, I decided to stick with the Paradigm line. The 90P’s version 2 replaced a pair of Paradigm Studio 20’s and a PDR-10 sub in my home theater setup. I was not totally happy with the musical/theater presence of the output that they produced. Could be the acoustics of my room or my ears, but the presentation/image just seemed to lack something that I could not put my finger on. My system consists of all Paradigm products. A CC-350 for center, two Micro’s for rears and the 90P’s for fronts. The system is powered by a Sony STR-DA777ES, which produces 120 Watts per channel. Yes, Sony, but this receiver has excellent reviews and is quite the workhorse that produces excellent quality for the money. The item that impressed me the most about this speaker was how much fuller and richer the sound is, compared to the Studio 20’s and the sub setup. Initially I did not think there would be a vast difference, but it is like night and day. To be honest, the speakers do not produce quite the detail in the high and mids as the Studio 20’s, but the difference is made up by musical presence alone. However, in this room, my focus is more inclined towards home theater rather then music. Yet, even with music, they are quite wonderful and almost exceptional for cost versus performance. The nicest item of all is that you don’t need to purchase a sub for these speakers and they do put out a huge amount of bass with the self amplified three 8 inch woofers. In fact, for my ears and the room size, (16 X 20) they are outstanding. I am not a high power, crank it up type of person, but like moderate to above average levels of sound reproduction. Yet, even beyond normal listening levels, they are warriors. After breaking them in for a few weeks, they have loosened up and are quite remarkable. These are not Dynaudio Contour’s, but then pricing is not equivalent. However, for the amount of money you spend, they are a steal in this price range. There are better sounding products in th

Strengths:
Everything

Weaknesses:
None in this price range

Similar Products Used:
Paradigm, Dynaudio, Klipsch,

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from Paradyme

Summary:
I demoed a pair of the 90p's recently and was initially very impressed. Even without sufficient break-in I was hearing things in recordings I had never heard. I was running them with a Denon AVR-2700 (80Wx5), which I knew might be a little lean for the 90p's (though with the powered sub, they really only need the juice for the tweeter and 6.5 inch mid). The result was a blown tweeter after about an hour of listening. I was sad to say the least.

If you have a fairly low powered receiver (100W or less) then the 90p's would be a fine choice. Don't push them too far, though, or you may end up like my tweeter did.

Personally, I've decided I can buy reference 80's for a couple hundred less and buy a three channel amp to power them and a reference center (using the Denon receiver as a temporary pre-pro). It will cost about $500 more for the reference 80's with an amp, but at that price, it's worth getting into the reference line and not feeling the urge to go to the next level.

I'll let you know more when I get the 80's, but 90p's sounded sweet!

Strengths:
bass extension, musicality

Weaknesses:
tweeter blew...

Similar Products Used:
infinity, polk, energy

Price Paid:  $1300.00

Summary:
Current System:
Yamaha RX-V596 receiver
Carver A/D 360 CD changer
Pioneer DV-333 DVD player
Yamaha K-960 cassette recorder
Paradigm Monitor 90P mains
Paradigm CC-350 center
Paradigm ADP-370 dipole surrounds

These are large, floor-standing 2 way speakers with built-in 140 watt powered subwoofers. They can be bi-wired/bi-amped and for music the subs are driven by the speaker level input (binding posts) with an adjustable level control. There is also a seperate LFE line level input, again with its own level control, for LF effects when watching DD 5.1 movies. The sub crossover is set at 180Hz, so effectively, they are 3-way speakers.

When I first auditioned these speakers (Aug '00) I was concerned that a 2-way speaker/sub-woofer combination would not be able to reproduce the sound quality of a true high quality 3-way speaker, but that concern was unfounded. These are possibly the best speakers available in their price range, they are certainly the best I have heard. The clarity and resolution is excellent, without being bright or harsh. The bass response is also excellent, tight and very musical. The relatively high 180Hz low frequency crossover also improves imaging, like the woofer of true 3-way speakers. The accuracy of these speakers is also amazing, I am hearing notes and sounds in the music that I have never heard before. My first concern is music, home theater comes second, and I was perfectly willing to sacrifice HT effects for the sake of music. I am very happy to say that with these speakers that was never an issue, their music reproduction is incredible AND they have proven to be wonderful for home theater. There are better speakers on the market, but only at prices that far exceeded my budget.

Potential buyers should be aware of some things before they make their purchase: These speakers cannot be placed in corners or the bass becomes very boomy, you will have to experiment with placement; These are tall, heavy speakers, you cannot put them on a stand and the floor spikes are required for the best performance; If you like your music VERY loud or have a very large space to fill you will find the 140 watt sub amps and dual 8 inch drivers just don't move enough air to fill the space or supply enough volume. But since I live in a condo these speakers are more than loud enough for my taste. :-)

Strengths:
Excellent imaging and clarity, very accurate

Weaknesses:
Bass can be boomy if they are not positioned properly, subs cannot handle VERY high volume.

Similar Products Used:
Auditioned PSB, NHT, Boston Accoustics, Kef, etc.

Summary:
These are by far the best speakers I think you can find under $2000, and are better than almost all above it (IMHO).

I got great cables (mostly high end Ultralink), Toshiba 5109 DVD player & matching 480-progressive TV, Onkyo 595 receiver, center speaker (Paradigm CC 350), rear speakers (Paradigm Monitor 3's).

After a while I noticed something - since most of the TV/movie sound comes out of the center channel and it has to be either on top of or below the TV, it just didn't sound like it was coming out of the TV where it should. I tried the unthinkable - I turned my system into center phantom mode (as if there was no center channel) so the center sound was redirected to the monitor 90P's. The result was INCREDIBLE as I had hoped! Since the tweeters of the 90P's are exactly at the height of the middle of the TV and placed at equal distances from it, the sound is just as if it came out of their mouths! The imaging is that good. I tried it with and without the center, and I always liked it better without. You should give it a try with your system.

By the way, the Monitor 3's are the greatest buys for under $400 per pair, and are great as rear speakers (I even have a pair of them at work in stereo). IMHO, they are the best bang for the buck that exists, period!

My advice: Get 90P's for left-right, 3's for rear, and forget the center and you don't need seperate sub-woofers (this looks great, too!). The MSRP of this is $1900 total, but if you try hard enough you can get good discounts from an occasional dealer (but they are loathe to let anyone know of this since Paradigm is so strict on this). The 90P's also have a LFE subwoofer input on each speaker and a mixing knob to blend it with the normal sound (which also uses the sub woofers), so you get the best of all worlds for music and 5.1 Dolby digital! If you have to get by on less money, get Monitor 3's for fronts and backs (with stands to get correct height - very important) and wait until you get more money to add Monitor 90P's and take one pair of 3's to work or another room.

By the way, there way nothing wrong with my CC-350. It is a truly excellent center speaker. Until you've heard such incredible speakers (90P's) without a center, you really don't know what you're missing. I've also owned 4 Monitor 3's and CC-350 for my other TV room for MANY years and I'm sooooooo glad I bought them (wish I could say that about all the other stuff I have :-)

Paradigm rules!

Strengths:
Wonderfully imaging and flat response from sub woofer to highs (since each has built in subwoofer which mixes LFE channel with normal speaker input. Beautiful speakers!. You can get these and NOT have to get either seperate sub-woofers or a center channel (gasp - see below).

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Other Paradigm equipment.