I never realized how many different brands and models of speakers there were.I had a Cambridge Sound Works Movieworks and Monster Sub I thought they sounded good at first and most of the friends that had been over thought they were great but after a while you really notice there are no midtones. So I started looking at different models Energy, Klipsch, PSB, Monitor Audio, Polk , and so on. I liked the Klipsch 20 and the Energy C6 but the price was too high. When I heard the Monitor9 I was impressed.I bought them and we've been listening to Music ever since.The Monitor9's were the best value and had the best sound - more Bass than the C-6 but just as sharp.Considering the spound and the price I would rate them high.

I've had the Monitor 9's for over a year now matched up with cc350,atoms,ps1000.I find this speakers sound great for all types of music and hometheater. I
highly recommend bi-wiring them it seems to bring the best out of them. I'm
planning on buying the DSP-A1 in the New Year and adding another pair of
Monitor 9's as my surrounds and moving by atoms to the fronts. Can't wait.

I have had my Monitor 9's for two months. They don't image extremely well and one speaker came with stripped sockets for the floor spikes. They are a little bass heavy. I listen to music ranging from Tchaikovsky to the Chemical Brothers and these speakers are at their best when no vocals present. The mid-range and treble are good. I've heard tigher bass, but it is good for the price. I paid $650 (w/out tax) and retail should be around $750. The speaker cabinet it very solid and the cones and surrounds can take a beating. I have compared this speaker to others in the same price range and it is among the best (my rating reflects how it compared to similarly priced speakers.) I would seriously consider the NHT VT-1.2 or VT-2 systems if I had a few more dollars to spend, but then I would have to audition the Reference Series speakers from Paradigm to make a fair comparison. The Paradigm Monitor Series still represent the best value when compared to simiarly priced tower speakers.

I LOVE THEM I THINK THEY WERE A BIT TO MUCH, OR WHAT I PAID ANYWAY ($700)I WAS BETWEEN THE B&W'S AND THE PARADIGM I WENT WITH THE MONITOR 9'S DUE TO MY TASTE IN MUSIC...MORE BASE HEAVY..

These speakers are awesome.
The midrange is well defined and has a definate presence. The bass is tenured and sounds like music - not just thumps thrown out to make people happy. I have yet to hear the tweeters falter. Anybody with $750 to spend on speakers needs to go listen to these - they rock.

I have a reveiw of these speakers below, soon after I first got them in March (the review below is on may 7th '98).
So far I've had my Monitor 9's for 10 months and I'm very pleased with them. I too thought I might have made a mistake in purchasing them at first. They were excellent, but weren't as 'musical' as I was expecting. That was mostly cured with repositioning and bi-wiring.

Since I've moved from an apartment to a house I've had the ability to REALLY open them up. They're almost as good at parties as my old Cerwin-Vega's - definitely more accurate and realistic, but not quite as loud and obnoxious (some partygoers were dissapointed that I went from C-V to Paradigm). However when I sit down with the sole purpose of listening to music, the Monitor 9's put my old Cerwins to shame in so many ways! Vastly superior when it comes to reproducing music. I've had them connected to 4 different recievers. First an RCA home theatre unit that was horridly underpowering the speakers. It made the speakers sound cheap, though it was good for movies. Secondly a Sony home theatre receiver - a little too harsh, and not at all musical - suprisingly the RCA was better for movies despite being older and having less power and features! Also the Sony tended to get unreasonably hot. Thirdly a Yamaha Stereo receiver. With it, the Monitor 9's were at thier peak! Tight bass, accurate but lively sound. My music never sounded better! However, being that we are movie buffs we need to have the theatre experience too. With the advent of a turntable we were further unable to fit the Yamaha in our setup to power the Monitor 9's seperately in our home theatre set-up as we were doing. We had to relegate the Monitor 9's to the JVC home theatre receiver that was powering the other speakers. That's what they're currently hooked up to now, along with a Paradigm LCR-350 center (check out my reveiw of that AMAZING centre!) and Paradigm ADP-100 rears. No Subwoofer is *really* required with the 9's (but one can always help! I reccommend the Reference Servo-15). The JVC doesn't do a bad job of either music or movies - but something is a little off with the lower midrange using the JVC. It's very difficult knowing how good they can sound, but not being able to *quite* get that performance with the JVC. If I didn't know how good the Monitor 9's sounded on the Yamaha, I'd now only rate them 4 star. But knowing their true abilities with the Yamaha I'll rate them 5 stars (I'll see about getting that lost performance back with a new Yamaha 795 or 2095, or perhaps a Harmon/Kardon AVR-65. Does anyone know if that'd be a good combo?).

Also they're priced AMAZINGLY! I paid just over $650 CANADIAN (that's about $430 US ?)!!!! I love my local dealer. :)

These speakers are definitely worth auditioning if you're looking for a sub $1000 speaker! I also auditioned the PSB Century 800's when shopping - I thought they were ever-so-slightly better than the Monitor 9's (at least during my auditions) but they were $850 Cad, and didn't appear to have the amazing build quality the Paradigms did.

Later!
mike s
v7q2@unb.ca

These speakers fall well into their price range. I would pay about $700 for these, and would encourage someone looking for a $500 per pair speaker to find the extra cash. I was looking to spend about $1000 myself, so I listened to these to see if it was worth the savings. It wasn't, not in my case anyway.
I found the midrange to be a little muddy (though much improved over the Infinity 2000.6 I was looking to replace). I thought the highs were nice, but there was a hint of harshness there. The bass was there, and it was adequate.
These speakers were driven by an Adcom A/V preamp, and an 80 Watt/Ch Adcom amplifier). I was listening to La Floa Maldita, Front Line Assmembly, and Bauhaus (A representation of the dancier tunes found in the gothic/darkwave/electro-industrial genre)

I also listened to these augmented with the Velodyne CT-100 subwoofer. While I have very high praise for that velodyne (I can't believe it is only about $399, and can be had from Circuit%^&$City! as well quality audio delearships), it just didn't seem to work well with this speaker.

If I had heard the Paradigms before I purchased the Infinitys a little over a year ago (Circuit City served me a plate of rat-salad here), I would have bought them then, and would not be looking for a new pair now. But as it is, I can now skip this step and go one-up, and that I did, with the NHT 2.5i. I would choose these over Def Tech BP10s (I do have a slight affinity for the bipolar soundfield, but room dimensions are a factor, and you would at least have to hook me up with Def Tech BP30s, perhaps the Mirage OM10...though I find that to be a little too soft).

I'll round up my 3.75 stars to 4.

I bought my Paradigm Monitor-9s in February 1998. Since then I have had them in a myriad of different setups and rooms. I bought them factory direct and have been well pleased with their performance. They are not state of the art, but they are a step aboce the competition in their price range. They are very sensitive to room setup and positioning. Currently I'm using an Marantz SR-880 reciever to drive them. They sound okay, but can do better with other equipment. With the Marantz, the midrange is a little too bloated. I've also used the Denon AVR-5600 with them. The Denon, to me, sounded a little bit better than the Marantz, but still had the bloated midrange.The Denon has more power than the Marantz and the Paradigms sound better the more power tou give them. Both of these tests were done in my home. I audtioned the speakers at a local hi-fi store. Their system included an Acurus stero preamp and 150w amp. This was also in a much bigger room (I dont remember the dimensions). In this setup, the midrange was not bloated like with receivers. I think this has to with the quality of the DAC's used. They also had a YBA amplifier their and we hooked that amp to the Paradigms. With this amp, the imaging opened up even more and the midrange was not bloated. The highs nice and crips but not bright.
Recently, I had the privelidge of doing some product testing for a company called MSB Technology. They had some new DACs coming out for the 1999CES show and wanted some feedback. My father is a minister, so we set up in the church sanctuary, a fairly large open room. MSB brought over their reference Chateau Research monitors ($3000/pr), a Runco LJR2 transport,a dvd player with 96kHz, MSB's new 96kHz/24-bit Linc DAC and Gold DAC, A Conrad-Johnson MF2100 amplifier, an Acurus 200w 3-channel amplifier, and MSB's own custom preamp. I broughyt over my Monitor9s. All comparisons between speakers were with the c&j amp. We listened to their system with the Chateaus first. The Chateau's are very accurate, revealing speakers. They throw up a pretty big soundstage, especially away from any walls. Not much bass. The paradigms on the other hand had much more bass, not boomy just more, but the imaging was not there like the Chateau's. Of course, keep in mind the price difference $3000 to $750. So we did some playing around with placement, grills on/off. We tried tilting them back buy lifting the front up about 1"-1.5". That helped the imaging a little, but it still was missing. We then took the Acurus amp and hooked that up to the woofers only in a passive bi-amp setup with the Conrad powering the tweeters. WOW! The imaging opened right up and the system dynamics rose greatly. The imaging was still not as good as the Chateau's, but they were getting closer.The bass was tight and powerful, and the highs were smooth and detailed. The midrange was not bloated, but well balanced.
I have learned that Monitor9s need some work to get them to sound their best, but it is well worth it. Bi-amp if you can, tilt them back a little bit, and pick the right componants. Doing these three things will greatly enhance your listening pleasure. No, there not the best speakers around, but with some work, you can rock on with your bad self. :)

I initially, was concerned I had made a mistake buying these. So veiled did they sound.I kept playing them. More and more they opened up. I bi-wired them with junk Monster cable.I like em much more.They are certainly detailed.How much more detail could one ask for to here singers lips part on good recordings? They image well. I hear music coming from behind me with these. Eric Clapton is still not quite in the room with me yet.Not like the BA VR950`s put him in which I don`t quite understand since the Monitors do every thing else so much better. Perhaps its the wires.Don`t get me wrong ,Eric is close, maybe 2 paces away from the 950`s. I expect a little more tweaking will get him right there.A clean sounding speaker with great value.

I own the M9 for 2 month now.The last problem that i can imagine is their built quality .
I was thinking to replace them because of lake of midrange for my taste but when i looked at others brands the built quality was far from PARADIGN. They are really perfect in that area . The sound depends on your taste.
first of all If you saw that something is wrong with them you had to return them immediately and not to do a research on the problem ....
And second, why did you post your bad review in all the hometheatre sites that you know?? Do you feel better now?