Warm mids, crisp highs, amazingly tight lows - imaging is incredible

A little brite - see post below

After upgrading(?) to a Yamaha 596 receiver, I decided that it was also time to replace my 6-year old Klipsch KG2.5's. I must admit that for the size and price, those were excellent.

I read a lot of reviews on this website and the technical info given by Klipsch and decided to listen to the RF-3's and the RP-3's. I took some material that I was very familiar with and covered a good bit of the audible spectrum (the "Power of One" soundtrack and the James Taylor Live DVD) to sample. I was more than a little disappointed in those $1100 speakers. In fact, I was convinced from everything that I read that I would be walking away with them the day I went to listen. They actually sounded only slightly better than what I already had.

I then (reluctantly) listened to a friend who had always been a Paradigm fan and went to the Paradigm dealer. I took the same material to listen to, along with some more, and listened to several models. I started with the Mini Monitors, then listened to the Monitor 11's, then the 7's. I fell in love with what I heard in the 7's.

I've had my Monitor 7 v.2's since the beginning of January '01 now, and I love them more and more each day. It really did take about a month before they began to really come alive. It could be totally psychological, but I thought they actually sounded worse the second week I had them than when they were brand new, but now they are just incredible.

I listen to a lot of different material - bluegrass, some r&b, a lot of alternative rock, some top 40, and movies in 5-channel mode. These speakers are very accurate with tight bass and (objectively speaking) the warmest mids I've ever heard.

I'm not sure about the brightness though. I've seen some other people say that their Monitor 7's are bright, but I've also seen many more reviews of my receiver that say that it's very bright. I'm beginning to think that my receiver really is the culprit. The brightness really isn't overpowering in my room though. I've backed the treble control just down below the "zero" mark and everything seems OK now. I would like to try a better amp though.

On another note, I just bi-wired my speakers (after listening for about 3 months). I'm very, very skeptical about the entire bi-wiring concept, but I really think that the soundstage became more defined and natural. Imaging seemed to improve, too. I still haven't seen any convincing evidence that bi-wiring *really* technically makes a difference, but even it creates the placebo effect, it was worth it to use this method.

Overall, I would strongly recommend these speakers. This is my first Paradigm experience, and I plan to upgrade my (almost brand new) Klipsch center channel to the Paradigm CC-370 any day now. I can find no flaws in the physical build quality or look of the speakers, and the sound is just awesome. Definitely give these a listen.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch KG2.5, Klipsch RF-3, Klipsch RP-3

VERY GOOD MID RANGE

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VERY NICE SPEAKER, LISTENED TO ALL OF THEM AT THIS PRICE RANGE AND TOOK THE SALESMAN`S ADVICE (DAN...VERY NICE TRUE GUY) GLAD I DID. THE SPEAKER EXCELLED THROUGH THE RANGE OF FREQUENCIES. VERY HAPPY AND WOULD RECOMMEND THIS SPEAKER HIGHLY

Similar Products Used:

PSB TANNOY

Power hungry, attractive, imaging, price-performance ratio

Too new to tell

Just bought the Monitor 7's V2 to upgrade from the minimonitor. All I can say is, sweet jebus! What a difference. Matching these with my Yamaha 995 gives me goosepimples. Go see Ingo at Natural Sound in Kitchener, ON and pick up a pair. They are simply outstanding for the price. Friends think I've spent thousands on these. For home theater I am even more impressed. They make a pretty sweet match with the mini's on surround detail.

imaging, 2 channel separation, bass, works better than v1

brite

I love these speakers and I'll tell you why. The price that you pay for these compared to the value of the performance is incredible. Comparisons with the v1's is great too. with the new crossover and larger cabinet configuation the V2's seem to image better between eachother and the CC370 (which I have as well).

Now as most people who get into Paradigm know that there is a break in period. These will take about 100 hours a good use to get them to shine.

When i got them home I took them out of the box and put the nice feet with spike on the for floor isolation. I'm not sure if the v1's came with feet spikes but it was a nice thing to see.

I plugged them in and look a listen, and there was a nice amount of bass, but not much. The tweeter was overly brite and I had to turn the treble down on my receiver. But the imaging was superb.


I'll leave that for now. It has now been roughly 60 days and the speakers have had probably 250 hours of use, and I'm telling yoiu honestly these speakers are coming alive.

When listening to 2 channel music I usually leave my PW2200 on if I am listening to bassy music such as Hip hop or techno and off if I am listening to rock.

I popped in EI by Nelly the other day which is a bassy rap song and my room was shaking, very powerful bass that I could feel in my chest. I decided to see what it sounded like without the sub being on, but guess what the sub was already off. I must have left it off from th last time I listened to some rock. I was astounded by the bass that was coming out of the Mon7's. In some cases for dvd's I could turn the sub off and still get decent bass from the speakers. But I would still recommend a sub, for HT use.

The tweeter is still really brite, and I have had to turn down the treble all the way, I also don't have them toed in as well. (I have a yammy receiver so that doesn't help either). The imaging is nothing short incredible. Panning form left to right and from center to each speaker is down right fantastic. Ronin's car chases were ridiculas and some of the the cars seem to pass through the room.

But one of best scenes for panning and soundstaging is Dragonheart (DTS is even better). When the dragon is flying around talking to Dennis Quaid, you can follow the sound around from speaker to speaker and in between.

The main place I find that these speakers shine is for 2 channel music though. Listening to Ivana Santilli's Brown (drum and bass/jazz) it sounds liek she is in the room, and I ahve seen her live. U2's Still haven't found what i am looking for, is pure joy. The opening sequence is quite beautiful.

I'll tell you these speakers are better than I ever hoped. Some advice to give is if you are looking for a pair, purcahse them and work them in, that way you will hear what these speakers are truly capable of, not what you hear form the box.

This is with out a shadow of a doubt a true 5 * speaker.

Similar Products Used:

System includes Paradigm Mon 7v2's CC370 Mini MonV1 PW2200

See post below

See Post below

I wanted to add something to my post I did directly below this one.

I wanted to add something about power. I was originally running these fantastic speakers with a Yamaha 595a, which delivers 70 per channel, though from measurements through a DMM and Oscope show that it when all 5 chans are running it is producing closer to 65 watts.

Anyhoo, I upgraded my receiver to the new Yamaha RXV 800, which is a fantasitic piece of equipment in the sub 1000buck range. But this receiver pumps out 100watts X 5 constant, again that is measured. and with the added power it brought these speaker to a whole new level. They just absolutely sing now. (and I can't wait to add separate power amps over the summer).

So basically I just wanted to add that these speakers are great speakers using a decent amount of power, but are out of this world when you hit 100 watts and up.

Similar Products Used:

See Post below

Very crisp and clear

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An outstanding choice for the HT setup. Very crisp and clean highs and great lows from such a small speaker. Takes about a month to break in to get rid of an overaggressive tweeter and for deeper lows. You just can't go wrong with these outstanding speakers.


Setup:
Center CC-370
Main Monitor 7 v.2
Sub PW-2200

Amazing sound, Great Build quality, Classic look

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I have had the monitor 7 v.2 for about a month now, and They are great. Not broken in completely yet, but everyday they sound a little bit better. Nice highs, not to sparp, great midrange, fab lows. They match seamslessly with the cc-370 center channel. A great pair for the money.

They sound even better bi-wired.

Similar Products Used:

older Sony floorstanding speakers