My posts are as proper English as I know to type it. If you can't read it there isn't anything I can do to help. And it's good enough that if you want to make it a problem I don't care for your help anyway.
Since this original post we(wife and I) did go ahead and get a pair of Paradigm Monitor 7's. We listened to Atoms, Mini Monitors, Focal 706V, the new 716's in a period of 2 days and 240 miles round trip.
We started off with the MM's and M7's and were completely blown away by the MM's. Holy WOW! those little things are fantastic for the money and size! We had only 1/2 hour with those before closing so we thought maybe it was just the sizzle factor and the impact the made on us might wear off with time.
The next weekend found us 120 miles away paying attention to the Focals. The 706V's were what I had figured we'd end up with, but there just wasn't anything special I was hearing that made an obvious decision. Being as they were also actually shown in a hallway didn't help either I'm sure. Talk lead us to the 716 on closeout and again, no particular "gotta have them" feelings. They're wonderful speakers in every way that my ears can tell though. We both just like a little more in you face type of sound. These were in a 12x14'ish room and I even I could hear serious acoustics problems there when the volumes came up.
All the time we were listening to the Focals we both were comparing them to the MM's and the MM's were still obviously ahead. And, we both agreed on what we were hearing!!
When we came back to town and listened to the MM's again it did confirm out feelings, and since the M7's are almost exactly the same except better where the MM's are lacking we stepped it up and bought them instead.
There are a couple things I learned that weekend that really made me glad. For one, as we were listening to the Focals Howard was kind enough to swap amps as an A/B comparison. I used to do a LOT of shooting years ago, and way too much without protection. Since then my left ear is definitely weaker in picking up the highs but since I've never had them tested I didn't know how bad it is. Evidently it isn't as bad as I'd thought because the A/B swap showed a huge difference in how laid back sounding one amp was compared to the other.
The other thing I learned is that my hearing can't be too awful when I can hear such sutle differences in the speakers that I am. Good stuff.
So after having the M7's here for a week and playing with them on the home court I'm pleased with the choice we made. There was the initial let down when we fired them up of room acoustic problems, and I think the old cd player is showing why it needs to be upgraded, but we can work out of that. I'm going to try to convince the Manager of the Interior to allow some absorbent wall hangings and decoration items to tone down the reflections that are rampant.
And I'm trying to decide to go with a streamer/DAC
next, or a better cd player for the next purchase. From what I see a DAC with optical or coax inputs will start about $250 for good reviews. Deciding on what price point to aim at with the cd player is a lot more difficult. IDK but am guessing somewhere around the $800-1000 mark might give the sound quality I'd like to aim for. More homework...
