Clarity, clean, natural, excellent timbral balance

Gray face (uglier than sin), a little more staging

I received my monitor 9's as a gift from my brother after graduating from college. He broke them in and sent them up to me. I have been auditioning some other manufacturers products (PSB, Polk and other known name brands), but the 9's feel good to me. Not a B&W Nautilus 801, (shouldn't be for $11,000 less) but a hell of a speaker. Imparts no personality into the music, transducing only what it is told to do. Very neutral. I didn't have a tonne of cash when I got them. I was fortunate enough to have some equipment given to me. A 1974 Pioneer SA-9900. This amplifier is HIGH current to the Nth degree. The Monitor 9's fill the room with clean powerful sound at impressive SPL's. A definite reccomendation too for vinyl lovers. The midrange is very mud free and will do justice to the warm sound of a good turntable / arm / cartridge set-up. Overall rating is excellent.

Similar Products Used:

none

All round ability - able to handle everything from Movie to Rock to Classical. Very accurate speaker.

A sub would be worthwhile, otherwise the Bass has to be cranked for some music.

With several pairs of Paradigms from their compact monitor to the 9s, it's obvious I'm pleased with the line as a whole. I lucked into a second hand pair of 9s for about $400 US - quite a deal.

Their ability to project clear, focused sound openly and spaciously is their greatest feature in my eyes. A very flat frequency response means I can listen to any type of music without having to compensate for idiosyncracies in the speakers design.

I highly recommend these speakers!

Similar Products Used:

How about three other pairs of paradigms?

CLEAN, OPEN, SPACIOUS, GREAT IMAGING

Don't like how paradigm advertises it's products

I am an ordinary guy who LOVES listening
to music. I do not drive a PORSCHE, or
buy $5,000 speaker cables. But I believe
any one can have a good set of ears.
LISTEN carefully
to the Monitor 9's and then listen to
2,8,or 30 other speakers in that price
range. I did. I took 3 sample CD's of music I
LIKE, and it was vocal, musical and
I chose it for the wide range of dynamic
sounds and nuance of passages. The Monitor
9's edged out two other very good speakers.
The Klipsch KLF 20 and Snell E.5. Problem
is, the MON 9 is about $700.00 but
Klipsch and Snell are $1400.00. This
was my high-end of scale. Now I own both
Snell and Paradigm and they sound
breathtaking together, for a blue-collar
working man's taste.

Do yourself a favor, if you are
searching for speakers. Find one
go there, listen to it.

You will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Snell E.5, Klipsch klf, Bose 901 (5), JBL Ll50

Bright Treble( If you like that kind of thing )
Tight Bass to around 45hz or so
Decent Midrange

Bright Treble (if you dont like brightness)
Bass below 45 hz
Soundstaging and Imaging nearly non-existant

I only label myself an audiophile because I exibit audiophile tendacies (tweaking endlessly, thinking about spending more money constantly etc)

I bought these about a month ago. I was very happy with my purchace. After breaking in for about a week I noticed that the bass became rather tight and well defined. After listening for a while longer I noticed that the deep bass below 45 hz wasnt very well defined. This seemed ok because most music doesnt get below that line - and I dont do HT at all. So for music you dont really need a sub.

Midrange was very musical - though not perfect. These speakers had the ability to reproduce the sound of an acoustic guitar very well. They sounded a bit lacking on piano music, but that was only because of their brightness.

These speakers are incredibly bright. Since I like bright speakers this is probably why I bought them, though many people do not like that sound. Because they were bright, piano sounded a bit "topped off." With rock music this proved benificial because cymbals were well defined.

I also noticed that there was practically no stereo image whatsoever. The sound was always coming from the speakers instead of from the space between them and around them. I endlessly moved them around, experimented with toe in, toe out, changed cables, changed amplifiers, and not much helped.

About 3 weeks after I had them one of the woofers died on me. Sounded like the spider collapsed or something because there was a grinding sound like the voice coil was rubbing. I dont really believe this was the fault of the quality control of Paradigm - but just a defective driver.

Since I didnt have them very long - my dealer offered to take them back from me and exchange them with something else. Since at this point I had a few extra $$ at my disposal I bought the Reference Studio 60 V2s.

Over all I would rate this a 4 star speaker for its sound but would have to knock off one point for being excessivly bright and having no image or soundstange to speak of.

However for value I would rate this a 5 star speaker. I have not heard anything better for the money you pay for these ($650).

Similar Products Used:

Definitive Technology Pro Tower 400, B&W DM 603S2, Paradigm Reference Studio 60

Bright Treble( If you like that kind of thing )
Tight Bass to around 45hz or so
Decent Midrange

Bright Treble (if you dont like brightness)
Bass below 45 hz
Soundstaging and Imaging nearly non-existant

I only label myself an audiophile because I exibit audiophile tendacies (tweaking endlessly, thinking about spending more money constantly etc)

I bought these about a month ago. I was very happy with my purchace. After breaking in for about a week I noticed that the bass became rather tight and well defined. After listening for a while longer I noticed that the deep bass below 45 hz wasnt very well defined. This seemed ok because most music doesnt get below that line - and I dont do HT at all. So for music you dont really need a sub.

Midrange was very musical - though not perfect. These speakers had the ability to reproduce the sound of an acoustic guitar very well. They sounded a bit lacking on piano music, but that was only because of their brightness.

These speakers are incredibly bright. Since I like bright speakers this is probably why I bought them, though many people do not like that sound. Because they were bright, piano sounded a bit "topped off." With rock music this proved benificial because cymbals were well defined.

I also noticed that there was practically no stereo image whatsoever. The sound was always coming from the speakers instead of from the space between them and around them. I endlessly moved them around, experimented with toe in, toe out, changed cables, changed amplifiers, and not much helped.

About 3 weeks after I had them one of the woofers died on me. Sounded like the spider collapsed or something because there was a grinding sound like the voice coil was rubbing. I dont really believe this was the fault of the quality control of Paradigm - but just a defective driver.

Since I didnt have them very long - my dealer offered to take them back from me and exchange them with something else. Since at this point I had a few extra $$ at my disposal I bought the Reference Studio 60 V2s.

Over all I would rate this a 4 star speaker for its sound but would have to knock off one point for being excessivly bright and having no image or soundstange to speak of.

However for value I would rate this a 5 star speaker. I have not heard anything better for the money you pay for these ($650).

Similar Products Used:

Definitive Technology Pro Tower 400, B&W DM 603S2, Paradigm Reference Studio 60

Everything

None

What can I say, Paradigm makes the best speakers for the money. My system sounds like a movie theater in my house, thanks to the speakers. I shopped around for a long time and compared numerous speakers before deciding on the Paradigm name. THey are all solid built speakers with exceptional range, clarity, and overall sound. You cannot buy speakers as good as these without spending over $1000 dollars more. I recommend going to Canada to buy Paradigm (they are dirt cheap up there). I bought my pair of Monitor 9s for $750, and they are worth every penny. A complete Paradigm system will blow the doors off the competition.
I run:
Paradigm Monitor 9 (main)
Paradigm CC-350 (center)
Paradigm APD-350 (surrounds)
Paradigm PW-2200 (sub)
Toshiba SD-2200 DVD
Toshiba 27 inch TV
Yamaha RX-995 DTS receiver