I absolutely love these speakers. I compared them to B&W, Definitive, Energy and other. The closest comparison to them would be the Energy's. The Definitive were not even close and were more money.

I like the fuller sound and feel of the Monitor 9 over the Monitor 7. Great at low volume and high volume.

I highly recommend these speakers to anyone, whether you are getting your 1st system (look at the Paradigm 3 SE's) or you are an audiophile.

These speakers are NOT for the audiophile type of guy. They're quite boomy, flabby, sloppy and nasal. They do miracels with dance and techno but the are not made for musical experience. They lack detail and they are getting on your nerves when you've listened for a long time. They are not bad, they are not great. They are Ok, not more. And I also find them very ugly with their mixture of black, grey and white, urgh...

I'm not going to sit here and write an in depth review. I will say that when in the market for speakers I demoed at least 20 different brands. NONE compare to the sound quality of the PAradigm Monitor 9's. THESE SPEAKERS ARE AWESOME. Please, before you buy something else, at LEAST demo these speakers.

These speakers are not up to par for Paradigm.The speakers put out a lot of volume, but in the
lower frequencies become quite sloppy. I was not
impressed. They put out a lot of bass, and went
quite low, but I'd rather save the money and
get something cleaner. Indeed, I'd much rather
have the Monitor 5's than the Monitor 9's, but
ended up buying the Monitor 7's.

-(I originally wrote this reveiw on the M9 page here on the 3rd of March)-
I have to start off by saying I -Highly- reccommend these speakers.

DESCRIPTION: 2 x 8" LF/ MF Drivers, 1" HF driver. typical 150W @ 8 ohms, 15-200W range, 32-20,000+ Hz freq. response.

I've recently replaced my Cerwin-Vega AT-12's with a gorgeous pair of black Monitor 9's, and I must say WOW. I was worried about losing the _feel_ of the Vega's bass, and giving up some efficiency. After a while of listening to the M 9's all my fears were gone. The Monitor 9's do everything well. They're crystal clear and precise (many speakers are, stepping up from C-V). I've heard things in my music that I thought I could only hear if I was listening for it on my Sennheisers! The Monitor 9's have a broad and nearly flat frequency response. They're great with low bass, mid-bass, midrange and the highs. However I found the area between the mids and highs to be . . . ambiguous (for lack of a better word), though my speakers are brand new, and this might be cured after some more 'burn-in' time.

Addressing the Bass boominess I must say that these speakers are _not_ for small rooms, they need a large room and should be placed well away from the walls. If you have a small listening room, get small speakers.
I've also never gotten a better deal on a pair of speakers. I've seen them go for upwards of $850 Cnd. I picked mine up for almost $200 Less!
I've only had these speakers for about 3 days, and I've been testing them with (and burning them in with): Loreena McKennitt, Tori Amos, 20 bit remastered gold Sarah McLachlan, Delerium, Techno-Animal, Abba (yes, Abba), Madonna's "Ray of Light", Fleetwood Mac, and some classical. I've also tried some vinyl too (all Sarah McLachlan though). John Clark (on the M9 page) was right, these speakers seem to have been made for the female voice (perfect for my tastes!), but they do everything well!
I HIGHLY reccommend checking these speakers out if you're looking for a solid perfoming full range speaker. Thier performance, along with thier price will hook you!

Later!
mike s

Just an update:
I've had the Monitor 9s for about four months now, and I still love them. They're not the best speakers I've ever heard, but they're the best I've ever heard that can be purschased for under $1000 - though I will admit some are pretty close.

For those who have mentioned that they don't like the looks of the grey, black, and white on these speakers, KEEP THE GRILLS ON! It really makes a difference in sound, and the speaker will then be all black. I've tried mine with the grills off, and I noticed a difference in the sound. This was recently noted in a review of the Monitor 90P (essentially M9s with powered subs built in) in SR.

If you're looking in this price range, you can't do much better for a combination of home theater and music. The Monitor 7 is close in music, but a sub is required to get true HT sound from them, and that makes the price higher than the M9. Overall, the Paradigm line is quite impressive, especially if price is a factor for you.

Enjoy!

I've posted a review of Monitor 9 about 10 months ago under Paradigm M9. Now I have had these speakers over an year and I must admit that the sound is exactly what I wanted from my speakers. I listen mostly machine made music, for example Prodigy, Chemical Brothers etc. and I like to play it loud! It's true that the bass is kinda boomy especially when listening in a small room but the overall performance is very good and the price of these speakers is VERY attractive! And the output level...WOW! I have biamped my Paradigms with NAD 314 handling treble and NAD 214 the low end. I don't have guts to drive the system with maximum level but even when volume knob is in 10 o'clock it's frightenly loud! You can get more SPL from other speakers of the same price range (C-W for instance) but not that bright sound and wide soundstage.In home theater Paradigm M9s are good as well. It's my new growing interest and I've thinking to by a budget subwoofer to add some more low bass so that I can literally shake my room when watching movies. Something like Paradigm PS-1200 or B&W ASW-1000 should do the job...any suggestions?

I owned these speakers for over a year in addition the the B&W CDM 1s so I can give my opinion about these Canadian speaks.
As all Paradigm speakers, the Monitor 9s are fairly neutral. Bass had great extension and definition and midrange was clear and neutral. Tweeter was a little shut in sounding so it gave a rather dry presentation. But that does not mean to take off the grill--taking it off made some treble notes to sound beamy and very noticeable. I think that the Paradigms are design to be played with the grills on.

In my rather small listening room (which also serves as my bedroom) the 9s had good extension to 25 Hz and 20 Hz audible. For reflex design, the bass was unusually tight that might seem initially to be "lean." No matter how loud I played them, I really could not make the reflex port to "chuff" and commendably blow out any air. I don't know if Paradigm design the port for sensitivity issues, or for controlling the cabinet from resonances but it really isn't like your typical reflex bass blout.

Midrange was relatively uncolored but not as clear as the CDM1 or even the B&W 602s. While the British speakers tended on the side of warmth, the Canadian was laid back and almost distant sounding. I don't know which I like better: midrange warmth makes music sound "involving" and beautiful; laid back sounds more analytical but perhaps more accurate. Very fine harmonic details were sometimes oscured within the speaker so if your looking for extreme accuracy and nuances, these speakers are not for you. But if you are looking for a well balance presentation and good value, these speakers are great!

Imaging was good, but not great--what do you expect from a sub $1000 tower speaker? Things were localized well but are not as pinpoint as the others. But imaging and soundstage is what you get when spend a lot more money. I think that the reason the Paradigms don't image as well as it could have is the rather laid back sound. Also, the fact that you should keep the grills on and the cut-away on it might narrow the dispersion. In ending, this is a good value speaker that is more about quality. It looks great, sounds great, and has a great price! Recommended.

I auditioned the Paradigm Monitor 9's against speakers from Mirage, Klipsch, etc. and I ended up buying these. I cannot say that these were the best sounding speakers (which were an $1100 pair of Klipsch's), but the better sound of the Kipsch's was not enough to justify their significantly greater cost. The main reason I purchased the M9's is because of their clean, detailed sound. I was especially impressed with the vocals, which were accurate and life-like, although a little layed-back. These speakers have decent bass extension (I'm guessing probably to around 40hz), although I noticed a lack of bass between 80-100hz, but that could just be from my the characteristics of my room. These speakers do well with classical orchestral music and most types of acoustic music. They are about average with pop and rock music, though. If you want detailed, natural-sounding music, try auditioning these speakers. I am impressed with these speakers.

I have found the Monitor 9's to be quite nice. I have had them for about 9 month's or so and haven't had any problem or complaints. They have a well balanced sound and I have had many people complement them for their sound and low bass response. For the price I feel there a very good choice. I'm going to try a pair of Monitor 90P's and I'll tell you what I think of those to.