Paradigm Studio 40 v2 or v3?

My brother is looking at purchasing a pair of Paradigm 40's but is curious about the differences between the version 3 and version 2's. We have looked at and auditioned the v3's and for the money he is very impressed. He is not all that wild about the cabinets. I see that some of the v2's have nice veneered cabinets. My question is what are the sonic differences? I've never heard the v2's but there seems to be quite following for them. The price seems to fall right in line with what he is looking to spend. He plans to use them as rear speakers for his 5.1 setup but I have a feeling they might work there way into a 2 channel setup for him.