I've owned my new pair of Paradigm Monitor 9's v4 for about 2 months. A very good loudspeaker indeed. Great imageing and detail. Wonderful low end considering driver compliment. One must experiment with placement though. Best well away from walls, and toed in. Bi-wire if possible for best detail. They tend to sound a bit zippy with mid to lower quality amps (solid state), and are very sensitive to sound source quality. Monitor 9's are best mated to amp's that are high quality or that have a slightly laid back sound to them. I have no regrets in purchasing them.
Review: Paradigm Monitor 9 Speaker
Category: Speakers
This speaker is better with tubes. The Jolida drives them beautifully, and has really great sound at any reasonable volume level, and is particularly resolving at low levels. The speaker is somewhat brighter than the Polks, which are a little less detailed, but very easy to listen to, even with SS amps. The paradigms are great, but the combination of them with the Jolida is much better than with the Pioneer. With the pioneer, they are somewhat harsh and zippy, but with the Jolida they are very natural sounding. Compared to the B&Ws, they are sloppy in the bass/mid, and zippy up top, but they are a less expensive speaker. Their 94dB sensitivity would make them a good candidate for SET amplification. For a reasonably priced speaker, these are great, and have never sounded less than very good. They don't mate as well with SS amps as tube, but such is the case with many speakers. The build quality is excellent, they are very spartan in appearance, ad offer a good performance/price ration. They work great in my home theater, but with the pioneer receiver, listening to music through them is not as nice as my much more expensive 2-channel rig (duh!). All the paradigms I've heard have been very good speakers, and these don't fall short.
Associated gear
Pioneer VSX-24tx
Jolida 502 integrated
Similar products
B&W DM 605 s2
Polk Monitor JR 5
This speaker is better with tubes. The Jolida drives them beautifully, and has really great sound at any reasonable volume level, and is particularly resolving at low levels. The speaker is somewhat brighter than the Polks, which are a little less detailed, but very easy to listen to, even with SS amps. The paradigms are great, but the combination of them with the Jolida is much better than with the Pioneer. With the pioneer, they are somewhat harsh and zippy, but with the Jolida they are very natural sounding. Compared to the B&Ws, they are sloppy in the bass/mid, and zippy up top, but they are a less expensive speaker. Their 94dB sensitivity would make them a good candidate for SET amplification. For a reasonably priced speaker, these are great, and have never sounded less than very good. They don't mate as well with SS amps as tube, but such is the case with many speakers. The build quality is excellent, they are very spartan in appearance, ad offer a good performance/price ration. They work great in my home theater, but with the pioneer receiver, listening to music through them is not as nice as my much more expensive 2-channel rig (duh!). All the paradigms I've heard have been very good speakers, and these don't fall short.
Associated gear
Pioneer VSX-24tx
Jolida 502 integrated
Similar products
B&W DM 605 s2
Polk Monitor JR 5
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