Bought these for my rears, ended up as my mains!
Written: Mar 15 '02
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Pros: Small footprint. Great Imaging and soundstage. Cost to Value ratio is unbelievable!
Cons: Hard to place.
The Bottom Line: If you are in the market for an inexpensive, small-sized speaker - look no further. Most $1000+ speakers (of its class) can't keep up with it.
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| kendslat's Full Review: Paradigm Mini Monitor Main / Stereo Speaker |
When I first began listening to speakers to replace my old Yamaha mini's for the back 2 channels in my 5.1 setup, I made a list of everything I wanted to hear.
Boston Acoustics, B&W, Mission... I went to a few different shops and listened to every speaker I could find in my price range (under $750). I tried different configs, locations, and amps and decided on a nice pair of 601's (B&W).
My fronts were older Mitsubishi towers (3-way) that I was planning to upgrade next (figured I would replace the worst speakers first).
I was about to pay for the 601's, when a little bird in my ear (my wife) suggested we try 1 more shop just to make sure I like what I am buying.
Fine. We drove to a little car/home audio dealer to see what he had. He pointed us to the Paradigm Minis and told us that we wouldn't be dissapointed.
I wasn't. I couldn't believe the nuetral sound of the speakers. I brought a few cd's/dvd's to demo the speakers (I highly recommend this) and listened to them all. I heard things I totally missed with the B&W's and others. When I asked about the price, I was shocked.
$315. What? No... Yup, $315. I bought them on the spot.
When I got the home, I decided to try them out as my mains. I wasn't as happy with them as I thought I would be. I figured it was only because they needed to be broken in. I connected them to my rears and let them do their thing over the next month.
When it was time to purchase the new fronts, I sold my mitsu's and hooked up the mini's to the fronts temporarily. I was amazed at the incredible soundstage and imaging. I couldn't believe that speakers of this size could produce such a room filling sound. I turned off my sub to hear them better, and couldn't believe the lows!
I ended up buying another set of mini's for my rears!
Some positive notes:
Imaging/Soundstage is incredible.
Small Size.
Good lookiing.
Freq response.
Good construction.
Some negative notes:
Box has rear porting - hard to place against wall (don't do it).
Not easy to find proper placement to get the right soundstage.
Kinda heavy for a small speaker.
Need a high power amp - relatively low sensitivity 89db - I recommend a 80w+ high current amp.
All in all these speakers astound me. Everytime I hear them I am amazed.
Like I said before, I would power these speakers with no less than 80w HIGH CURRENT - don't believe all those "120w+ per channel" specs you see...
But that's a different subject for a different epinion.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 315
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Epinions.com ID:
kendslat
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Location: Hudson, MA
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 2 members
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