Side Mounted Not too bad looking Great Speakers

Could use better finish (Other then grill cloth)

90% of the people who call themselves Audiophiles on this site know very little, please post your qualifications correctly as this site is a great reference for those who need help. These are a great asset to my home theater system. They have a full surround effect even if I cannot place then correctly in the room.. This is something that I have not seen with any other surround speaker I tested. These are side firing and not on slanted baffles and are somewhat (due to room acoustics) flat in the listening area so they meet the TXH Specs. If you own the Studio series of Paradigm speakers these are the perfect compliment to them. Current System Pioneer SD-643HD5 16x9 HDTV Monitor RCA DRD485RG DirecTV Tuner B&K Reference 50 Preamp/Processor B&K AV2250 Power Amplifier Sony SCD-555ES SACD Changer MSB Link DAC 3 w/HDCD upgraded & Powerbase Panasonic DVD-RP91K DVD Player DVDO iScan Pro Progressive Scan Display Interface Monster HTS-3500 Power Conditioner Paradigm Reference Studio 100 (Rosenut) Paradigm Reference Studio CC Center Channel Speaker (Black) Paradigm Reference Studio ADP Surround Speakers (Black) Sunfire TrueSub MK2 Subwoofer Marantz RC9000 Color LCD Remote Control Sennheiser HD 590 Prestige Headphones

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Atlantic Technology, B&W, Monitor Audio

build quality, sound

mounting bracket makes getting it on the wall a pain (although once it's there, it looks great!), not a lot of room for banana plug if you're wall-mounting

This is actually a review for the Reference Studio/ADP, not the older Reference ADP-450. I've been running these as surrounds on a Dolby Digital/DTS system (driven by an Outlaw Model 1050) and been extremely pleased. I have a third ADP that I am using as a center surround for the 1050's Dolby 6.1 surround, and have been very pleased with the results. The dipolar (or, in this case, adapted dipolar) configuration does a remarkable job on surround, even though my room forced me to make a concession or two on placement.

Hardware:
Paradigm Reference Studio60v2 speakers
Paradigm Reference Studio CC center
Paradigm Reference Studio ADP surrounds
Paradigm Reference Studio ADP center surround (1)
Outlaw Model 1050 receiver
Panasonic DVD-A310 DVD player
Yamaha CDC-775 CD changer
Mitsubishi 27" TV

Similar Products Used:

Bose Model 100

Dipole provides diffuse sound.

None.

Originally, I was using direct/monopole speakers for my surrounds. My dealer allowed me to take home a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio ADP-450 dipole speakers (version 1) to compare it with the surround speakers that I was using (at the time, a pair of PSB Alphas). When I initially compared the two, I was concentrating mainly on the surround sound effects, while ignoring the front left/center/right channels. When auditioning this way, monopole speakers will tend to bring more attention to themselves, thereby giving the false impression that they audition better as compared to dipole speakers. However, when listening to the system as a whole (i.e. concentrating not only on the surround sound effects, but also listening to how the surround sound integrates with the front left/center/right speakers), I preferred the dipoles much better than the monopole speakers. I listened to various movies, and for at least 80% of the movies that I listened to, I clearly preferred dipoles over monopoles. For example, when watching the movie Twister, the dipoles provided excellent surround effects for the rain, which didn't sound right with monopole speakers (after all, you don't want to hear rain coming from two speakers... you want to hear it all around you, which the Paradigm dipoles did a great job on). Note that movies are generally mixed by sound engineers using a surround/diffuse speaker array, so it is best to reproduce the movies using equipment that best complements what the sound engineers intended.

Enough said! These are wonderful speakers.

Similar Products Used:

PSB Alpha

Highs, midrange, lows, price!! Basically everything.

None that I can see so far.

I have only had these for around a month so far, but am very happy with my choice. I upgraded from a pair of Polk Audio RT 300iFX speakers. I liked the Polks, but changed my front speakers and center channel, so needed this to match. I look forward to many years of happy listening. You can see my system in the "My System" portion of the Gallery on this site.

P.S. I have the ADB v.2 units. This was the only listing so I posted here.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio RT 300iFX

I bought the Paradigm Reference ADP-450 (white) dipolar speakers because I wanted a diffused sound for my rears (as recommended by THX). These were used to match up with my Active 20s/Active CC-450/Servo 15 from Paradigm. I was considering getting the Active ADP-450 but did not want to deal with finding AC power outlets to plug them into. Anyway, after hooking them up; here is my opinion of what I heard.I was really surprised how much the room was filled with sound activity using these speakers. I no longer found myself becoming distracted by certain sound effects like I did when using direct speakers for my rear. Sound was difficult to pinpoint which gave my home theater a true 360 degree effect. This was exactly what I hoped for. Now my entire system has a more seemless feel from left to right and back to front.

Some favorite scenes that were vastly improved by adding these speakers:
Dragonheart: Chapter 12
Desperado: Opening Scene/Opening Credits
LA Confidential: Shootout at the end of movie
Contact: Wormhole