These are some small but mighty little speakers. Very clear with good imaging and definition. They would work in a very small room by themselves or in an office setting; also in a kitchen environment. For a larger room, the addition of a subwoofer would be advisable, say a Paradigm PS-1200 or an Energy EX-12. For a comparison, an older pair of Bose 301's that I have in the bedroom are nowhere near as clear or precise as the Atoms. I purchased the Atoms for use as rears, price being a major factor, and clearly got a bargain. Five of them with a good subwoofer would beat the pants off of the Bose Acoustimass system; and should cause some real embarassment for the Dr.'s engineering staff. Paradigm may be new to some Americans, but give them a listen, they will sell themselves.

i want to just clarify my position on these speakers because i have also gotten a couple of emails from people that are reconsidering their purchase since my last review. if these are in your budget BUY THEM. There is absolutely nothing else out there for under $400 that even aproaches these guys and (as i stated before) they blow away the highly acclaimed nht budget line. regarding the review below, i actually compared them to 2 $600 speakers (nht 1.5 & monitor audio silver 5) and a $900 speaker (dynaudio audience 50). the point i was trying to make is that there is better out there if you are willing to spend a little more money. to me $600 is not much to pay for a genuinley better performing speaker that you are going to have to live with for most likely several years. i almost bought the atoms, but i shopped around some more & got a much better speaker for (to me) a little more money. i always look for products that perform above their prices. the atoms do that - they perform above their $179 price (which makes them an ok speaker on an absolute scale). the nht 1.5's & monitor audio silver 5's also do that (which makes them good to very good on an absolute scale), and the dynaudio's do that as well (which makes them excellent on an absolute scale) to me an absolute scale is one that does not take price in to consideration, only the performance of the product. the bottom line is, you have to live with your purchase, so go listen to these speakers yourself. then you can decide if the extra outlay is worth it or not.

The ultimate budget speaker. I've often wondered why manufacturers of cheap "appliance store" audio systems don't just dump those awful "towers" that sound like they're playing from the bottom of a well and include a pair of these. No bass is better then bad boomy bass...and relatively good mid and highs are key for enjoyable music listening regardless of what you listen too. For any system under a $1000 these are a great choice, although there's a couple of PSB's worth checking out too.

My Yamaha and NHT setup is now in the living room of my new house, so I was looking at something inexpensive for the bedroom. I always had a good opinion of Paradigm products, and I read the review of the new Paradigm Atoms by Corey Greenberg in Audio magazine, so I thought I would give them a try.
I was amazed how much bass came from these speakers, with only 5.5" woofers. The bass is not overdone, as many Paragims, such as the Mini Monitor. The bass level seems right and the extension seems to defy physics. Being driven by a harman/kardon AV5, the bass extension was so good that it sounded a lot like the SuperOnes hooked up with a powered subwoofer (Eosone RSP-910, made by Polk). Side by side with the SuperOnes without a sub, I could hear bass notes with the Atoms that the S1s couldn't reach. The bass could be felt too. Pretty good, as all my tone controls are set at 0. The soundstaging wasn't quite as good as the S1s, but I can't complain.

The treble sounded great on vocals and cymbals, and the midrange was pretty good. Not quite as detailed sounding as the SuperOnes, and the midrange was not quite as smooth, but I can live with it. It is quite amazing what kind of performance you get for just $178/pair. That's about half of the price of the SuperOnes. I should have bought these to begin with and saved some money.

The only qualms I have with it are that the 5-way binding posts, while very sturdy, are spaced too far apart for dual banana plugs. I had to connect using bare wire, at least until I can locate decent single bananas. I guess they are spaced like that to make room for the mounting brackets which you can get for them.

I compared them to highed-dollar speakers such as NHT (too bassy), M&K (very clear, but no bass), and Genesis ($1400 for bookshelf speakers?!!?), and for the money they can't be beat.

I thought they sounded extremely bright. The brightness made the timbre seem very unrealistic on classical music. Strings had a very tinny sound. Surprisingly I didn't find them at all fatigueing for the 45 minutes I was listening. They did have a very smooth sound with no grain. Rock sounded pretty good. I thought the bass was slightly boomy but in no way anemic. I give them a 4 for Rock/pop and a 1 for classical. After hearing all the rave reviews, maybe I should listen to them again.

I been listening to the Atoms for a week now and I'm consistently blown away by their performance. My wife and I have taken great pleasure in going through our cd/DAT collection to hear all the little details in the music that we missed on our big, honking Thecnics pieces of crap!The value for the money is unbeatable. I've heard and used $800 Yamaha studio monitors that sounded like absolute poop on their own, but when compared to the Atom at 1/4 the price, their wimpy, colured performance is downright shameful.
Viva Atom!! Maybe this will get other audio companies to realize that there is a pretty big market for audiophile-on-a-budget stuff like this, we can't all
afford to spend as much as a new house for a stereo system....
cheers! ;)

Great little speaker. The midrange and highs are very clean. However, it has no bass and it doesn't mate well with a true sub, but that's to be expected given the size. It is one of the best in its class. If you have a little more money and a little more room for the speakers, go for the Titans - astounding.

This is a follow-up to my earlier Atom review.
Yes, the Atom has incredible performance for the price.

However, as some fellow enthusiasts have noted the bass is deficient. There is also a tendency to sound congested in the lower mids.

The Atom is great as a beginner´s speaker. I used it regularly for four years.
I have recently upgraded to a pair of Tannoy Mercury m3s. The m3 is vastly superior to the Atom. I suspect the bookshelf m2 model is also superior.

Those seeking to upgrade should definitely give the m3 a serious listen.

I still have my Atoms. I am thinking of using them for a second system.

Wanting to create a budget audiophile system for my bedroom, I got an NAD C340 integrated amp, along with an NAD 522 single disc cd player. After reading numerous reviews in a myriad of hi fi magazines as well as auditioning speakers myself, I was extremely impressed by the performance that these seemingly diminuative speakers create. Stay away from anything mass market; I listened to smaller speakers from infinity and a bunch of other circuit city blands, all of which pale terribly in comparrison with these paradigms.
The token complaints made about the atoms' bass extension ignore what the atoms are made to do. if you're a real bass fan, then you'll want to get a subwoofer anyway, so i think you have to take into account what paradigm was trying to do with this speaker. it's small, accurate, and sounds beautiful. while the higher frequencies are this speaker's specialties, it's no weak contender with bass either, which comes out tight, accurate, and fills fairly big rooms with ease -- far bigger sound than its size would suggest.

i love these speakers, although partially b/c i think they're perfect for my application (you have to judge speakers within the context of their purpose). the best advice i can give is GIVE THESE SPEAKERS A LISTEN. you will most definitely have an impressive musical experience, and find that the price is a bargain. in other words, the atoms have sound that gives larger and more expensive speakers a run for the money.

Which one is good ! NHT superone or Atom !!I try both before
8 stars for Atom (sound and value) and 5 Stars for look.
10 stars for Atom v2 (sound, value and look)
5 star for NHT SuperOne (sound, value and look).