These are excellent speakers, sound is crystal clear, bright and pleasant to listen. Treble is enjoyable, sweet. This review is about the Phantom V3 towers.
The cabinets are not made of wood but as far as sound is concerned, they are awesome. Compared with JBM and Def Tech towers, I enjoy to listening to these most.
These have a ton of bass.

SWEET HIGHS
GOOD MIDRANGE

THE BASS IS NOT VERY DEEP AND TIGHT

I M A LISTENER FROM BUENOS AIRES. VERY GOOD SPEAKERS FOR THE
MONEY, MUCH CLEAR THAN MY JBL IN ..THE PRICE RANGE, THEY ARE
CONECTED TO A NAD C320 INTEGRATED, THE SOUND IS VERY SMOOTH
AND ENVOLVING, THE QUALITY SOURCE RECORDING IS VERY IMPORTANT.
.

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JBL POLK

mids,highs looks size clarity

low bass needs subwoofer

i wasnt such a fan of paradigm! i was more into jbl's, definitive and cervin wega aswell as the mirage.but when i heard these beauties i was shocked they sounded so smooth n strong! these babies can rock ur room at ne given levels! the clarity is purer then a carat A diamond! yeah to get the best kick out of these u gotta hav a sub

Excellent high, mid, good lows

Not any real weaknesses

I bought these speakers a few weaks ago because my brother rocomended them to me. He owns a pair of Titans, which he likes alot, although he wants to "upgrade" to the monitor line. I was impressed with the Titans and know I'm impressed with the Phantoms. The high end sound is really detailed and sounds great. Mid range bass is excellent too. I've listened to some cds, watched various movies and played Halo extensivly and everything sound great. The phantoms don't pick up super low bass very well, but with a sub they should sound sweet. I didn't expect the bass to be that low anyways because they only have 6-1/2 inch woofers. One small problem with them is on some movies, like Lord of the rings, I heard some small poping sounds breifly. This is only during one or two scenes with very loud, low, rumbling bass and it's very brief. Besides that, the sound is amazing. The grills come off now on the version 3's so that good.

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Pharadigm titans

great sound good price

none

I have a Denon home theater receiver, 4 Titains,1 Paradigm center chanle, and 1 Paradigm 12" sub and the sound is GREAT so I had to buy some towers to go with them and these Paradigm Phantom V.3's were the answer now my sistem is complete and they sound awsome.(Excalent work Paradigm!)

Clarity, Clarity, Clarity.

If you have a large listening area you probably will want to add a sub.

I bought these speakers because I was running out of money due to buying a denon 3802, and a sacd player and the IRS. I was replacing and older system including some bookshelf (atlantic technology) speakers because I have a large room in a new house. I have them hooked to two subs and they sound marvelous. The clarity of the vocals is striking. I played James Taylor's Beacon theatre DVD and a Carpenters DVD just to get a feel for the vocals and was utterly impressed (ok so I like the Carpenters). For the price, these should satisfy even the most discriminating. If you want to upgrade from here it is probably not due to the clarity of the sound. These are the version 3 so they have the removable grill.

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Harmon Karden Denon Sony Atlantic Technology Polk

Imaging Tight Bass Fluid middle range

Takes a fair amount of power to really get them going. Don't "speak" as well as I'd like at low volume (very minor issue, but as long as we're nit-picking...)

This is my first real pair of hi-fi speakers, purchased on a music student's budget. For the price, they simply cannot be beat. A warm sound, but without seeming manipulated. The most striking feature for me is their imaging. When listening to a live opera recording one can easily sense where all the singers are on the stage. These outperform many speakers in the $1000+ range. The newer models do include removable grills, so even this minor flaw has been corrected. It was a real pleasure to be able to hear small details on certain CDs that I'd never even noticed before! Bravo to Paradigm for creating a speaker that even young musicians can afford.

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CC-170, Cambridge Soundworks surrounds, Bose, B&K, Wharfdale

Price - bargains if you use ebay and ubid as tools to upgrade and sell current components. Clear bass, good imaging when used with all Paradigm speakers

Size - Floorstanding is a bit small and the bookshelf are a bit too large...guess the bookshelf weren''t meant as rear surrounds

This review is for both the Paradigm Phantom floorstanding model (current version) as well as the bookshelf speakers. I purchased both off of ebay in the past year (300 floorstanding, 125 bookshelf) and got terrific bargains. I have set up my living room with the Floorstanding as mains, Bookshelf as rears, and the CC-170. After reading the reviews of Paradigm on this boards I made the jump into higher end audio by ditching my sony and bose speakers and upgrading to Paradigm. Let me tell you how cheap this can be done! I sold a pair of Bose 201''s (used for 3-4 years) and made enough on Ebay to basically trade outright for the Pardadigm Phantom bookshelf models. The difference in sound (as well as size unfortunately) is astounding. Ebay and UBID are amazing tools for the beginning audio enthusiast. You can buy the good gear reasonably inexpensive and make a good amount on your cheap mass market Best Buy Circuit City stuff. Example, I used a Sony 545 receiver (the one with the infamous hiss) for almost two years. I went to UBID.com and found the Sherwood 7106 receiver (a $400 receiver, same as the Sony in price range but many more features) for $129. On Ebay I sold my Sony for $240 dollars. Five dollars less than what I paid two years ago and over $100 than what I just bought an amazingly good Sherwood receiver for (good for the price range...). Ebay also allowed me to trade my Bose center for a Paradigm CC170, for 10 dollars difference out of pocket....amazing. Back to the review. I was first disappointed with the Paradigm Floorstanding (which was my first purchase) becuase I was running them with my Bose 201''s as rears and a Bose VCS-10 Center. As I upgraded my receiver, and moved to an all Paradigm system, these really came to life. One thing it tought me about starting out in home audio is the importance of a good receiver and the true difference having all the same brand/speaker style can make. As I plugged in the bookshelf models to complete the system my living room came to life. The volume levels of the speakers actually raised a notch (thankfully) and the overall tone and imaging is phenomenal. I couldn''t be happier (unless of course I could financially move up to the monitor series) and am grateful for the advise of this board as with Paradigm I have finally found true audio quality (in an affordable price range).

Similar Products Used:

Bose - 201

I bought these speakers after putting some 15 year old Pioneers to rest and I couldn't be happier. I really didn't test any other speakers because I had heard a Paradigm model (3 years ago) against another brand and wash blown away at the crispness of the sound. Thus, I had to have these speaker when I did decide to purchase. I compared them to the mini's and prefered these because they seemed to have a fuller sound. I have a rather large room with cathedral ceilings and these fill it nicely. I am amazed at the highs and clarity of the sound. The bass is okay, but I run the PS 1000 with it for some extra punch. Be sure to give them a long break-in time!! They didn't sound that great out of the box(flat), but a month later, they are absolutely fantastic. I would recommend these to anyone interested in a full sounding speaker that can play incredible vocals yet rock the house with heavy metal.

Clean, crisp (not too bright), neutral, spacious, and a bargain at any price under $400

Who the heck glues on grills any more?

You can’t fix a crappy speaker that has poor sound later on down the road. If a speaker was designed poorly, chances are you are out of luck as far as making it sound better. It takes a very well designed neutral speaker that can be adjusted from a neutral level to meet user preferences and room limitations. This speaker does need to be paired with a sub, but I would rather have that then have speakers that are boomy or heavy in the bottom end. One thing that I must comment on is that I have these hooked up to a dreadful Sony STR-DE425 receiver. These speakers also need to be paired with a high current amplifier, but the beauty of the speakers is that they will sound good under any conditions. I intend to get a new receiver after college and I am going to spend about $1000 on a new receiver. In this way, I can “upgrade” my speakers from great to outstanding without ever changing speakers. That is the quality that makes the Phantoms (and all Paradigms) so appealing to a person who loves music and movies, but is on a budget. Phantoms perform well in every aspect of sound reproduction. Their imaging and spaciousness is so great that when I ask friends if I should adjust the level of a speaker, I can convince them that there is too much sound coming from speakers that aren’t even on (i.e. center and surrounds when I am playing in stereo). These speakers are, on the whole, unbelievable and the price is even better. For some specific comparison, I would like to mention that people in my area seem to think that Infinity RS series are the be all end all in this price range. I think they’re fools. These people point out things like the rubber surrounds, removable grills, cool cones, and higher power handling. Most of these people fail to admit that they would be happy with a pair of Cerwin Vega 15 inchers as long as they can play it loud. On a closing note, when your musical tastes are as eclectic as mine, try a pair of Paradigms and you will spend a lot less time fiddling with receiver settings. These speakers are pure

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Infinity RS3 and RS4