Paradigm Monitor Series 7 - Page 2

Hmm.. maybe I'll call a local dealer tomorrow and find out for sure.

The FMV prices listed in the previous link are correct.

Atom Monitor $400 pr
Mini Monitor $600 pr

Monitor 7 $900 pr
Monitor 9 $1200 pr
Monitor 11 $1600 pr

Center One $380 ea
Center Three $600 ea

Surround One $280 ea
Surround Three $400 ea

Just stopped by my local dealer today and they had the new series 7 monitor 11's on display!!!! Just wanted to say they look and sound amazing!! Wish I didn't just buy a the v.6 just recently!!!! They even feel amazing.....they have a silk soft feel to them!! So cool

What sounds better about the series 7?

Actually I couldnt tell you since I was just in and out to pick up my PBK but I am going back in very soon to have the Monitor 11's V.6 and the new Monitor 11's Series 7 side by side and I will let you all know what I think anyways! They are smaller but now they are a true 3 way design! Wish I would have waited on my V.6's!! haha oh well

I picked up the Mini-Monitors series 7 last night and hooked them up to a Denon 2112ci. Listened to a variety of music and watched Polar Express at high volume.

Having only auditioned the v.6s in the store, I can't make a great comparison. but I will say the tweeters sounded clearer and brighter. The overall sound is outstanding, clear and crisp, but smooth also. Additionally, the look is better with the grill off. No more condom look and the screw-free design is very sharp.

Very happy with the purchase.

Called the dealer today, they weren't able to get the series 6 in for me. He offered $100 off the demo pair of v6, but is still giving me the lower price for the Monitor 7 series 7 if I wanted. I went ahead and had them order them for me. I will have them in the next week.

Looking at the data sheet I was surprised to see that they increased the low-frequency extension and mentioned that it would still be 3db +/- at 34hz. That's for the monitor 7, and they dropped a driver. How is that possible???

I'm anxious to hear these things!

I hope someone tells me that they sound similar if not the same to the v.6's!!! Lol. I just got my version 6 Monitors and this makes me want to upgrade!! Hope the reviews are of course good but I hope it's not a huge improvement in sound compared to the v.6 just to feel better at the end of the day!! Haha

put my order in for the mini monitors v7 ($550) last tuesday. they should be coming in sometime this week or early next. also purchased the pioneer elite vsx-30 at costco ($299) to pair with these along with klipsch rw-12d ($350). even though i havent received the receiver yet, went to BB today and picked up the bluetooth adapter for the receiver for 50% off ($45).

hope this is a good setup as it is my first step into HT. i'm a total noob and have just been reading the forums and talking to various HT shops for the past month.

still need some good 12awg speaker wire. anyone know a good place to purchase besides monoprice.com? need about 100 ft. any advice with this is welcomed! =D

after tax, spent a total of about ~$1,300. next to come with likely be the center 1 since the receiver only pushes out 80wpc and the center 3 wouldnt be powered enough. any thoughts on this setup?

The smaller center will require MORE power, not less, to achieve the same volume.

again, i'm a noob so please clarify my misunderstanding...

below are the product specifications between the Center 1 and Center 3 models. wish i could post the direct links to the product pages but i'm a new member here and that privilege is not available to me yet, lol, but you can find this info at the Paradigm site. also, keep in mind the Pioneer Elite VSX-30 only puts out 80wpc...

Center 1:
MAXIMUM INPUT POWER: 80 watts
SUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE: 15-120 watts

Center 3:
MAXIMUM INPUT POWER: 120 watts
SUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE: 15 - 175 watts

picking the Center 1 will be a bad choice?

Thanks in advance!

Right, Chanmannn was thinking that the larger Center 3 would not get enough wattage with his 80 wpc amp. So I pointed out that the inverse is actually true. The Center 3 is 90 db sensitivity, the Center 1 is 89.

Another way to look at it is the Center 3 requires 20% fewer watts (64) to achieve the same loudness as it would using the full 80 watts with the Center 1.

I wasn't looking at the Recommended Power or Max Power "specs."

For those interested...

Sitting a common 12 feet away, the Center 3 requires:
420 watts to achieve reference level (105 db).
135 watts to achieve -5 db below reference.
42 watts to achieve -10 db below reference.

The CC-390 (94 db sensitivity) requires:
170 watts to achieve reference (105 db).
53 watts to achieve -5 db below reference.
17 watts to achieve -10 db below reference.

Thanks guys for the response and clarification! I'm actually more concerned with properly powering the centers. I was told by many audio stores that it's bad to have a receiver that can't power the speaker properly. Better to have a more powerful receiver to speakers that need less power rather than a receiver that can't meet the speaker's power requirements.

Example being, my Pioneer Elite VSX-30 is advertised to put out 80wattsx7channels. The Mini Monitors v7s have a Maximum Input rating of 80watts which should make a perfect match. I assume the same with the Center 1 which has a Max Input rating of 80watts as well. With that being said, I am under the assumption that since the specs for the larger Center 3 require more watts, that this would be a bad pairing (?). Maybe my real question is, will the Pioneer damage the Center 3? lol

Another questionable problem I ran into was understanding the Pioneer's true spec rating. It is advertised as 80wattsx7 but someone in another forum noted that it will only drive 80watts to the front two channels (referencing the Pioneer's owner's manual specs page, linked in thread). I've included the thread's link below for reference. If any HT gurus can help, I would greatly appreciate the words of wisdom. If this receiver turns out to be a bad choice, then I plan to return it for something that will be a better pair for the Mini Monitors and future additions (Center channel & Surrounds OR Front Towers, Center, and turn my Mini Monitors into Surrounds).

Please read Posts #63-67
ttp://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?p=42967886#post42967886

Had to remove the h in the link's http:// so that the link would post. I'm a new user and AVSForum wont let me put links until I have 3 posts

yes i agree. i've been thinking about that the past couple days which really pushes me back to returning the pioneer and grabbing a different receiver since the vsx-30 does not have preouts to support a preamp.

any advice or feedback to my questions in post #47 re:

-can the vsx-30 truly power 80 watts to the center channel? or is that rating mis-advertised?
-what is the true power rating of this receiver based on the spec sheets provided?
-what feedback can you give regarding the discussion in the thread listed? (posts 63-67)

That is true. But you are misunderstanding the speaker specs. Max Input Rating is not how much power you need to power the speaker with. There's no such thing as "an 80 watt speaker" or a "200 watt speaker." Again, it's the sensitivity you should be looking at here. A higher sensitivity means it will put out more sound (volume) with LESS power. Kind of like miles per gallon. The way you're thinking about it is backwards (like thinking that you better get a lower MPG vehicle because you know that you have very little gasoline available).


The Center 3 does not "require more watts." The manufacturer is saying that you CAN throw more watts at that speaker before bad things might happen. This has nothing to do with recommended pairing of amplifiers. If you worried about such, their other spec, Suitable Amplifier Power, is something you can look at. For the Center 1, they say 15-120 watts. For the Center 3, 15-175 watts. But this is more a generalization of the class of amplifier, not necessarily how many watts you'll put into the speaker.

So, if you were telling us, "My application for this amp & speaker is that I need to output peak 100 decibels from this speaker sitting 12 feet away," then we'd note that:
a) With any speaker sensitivity of 89 decibels, your amp won't cut it, because you'd need 170 watts for that one channel to get to that loudness.

b) The Center 1 is not rated by the manufacturer to handle that much power. Either by their 80 watts or 120 watts spec.

c) The Center 3 is also too weak a speaker for this application. Although it'll do better, as they say the max input power is 120 watts.

How loud do you expect to go? It might be hard for you to know this if you haven't heard clean, compression-free systems that are playing loud. Those will sound deceptively not-loud. It's when one over-drives weaker systems and there are distortion components in the sound that make you cringe, that you think it's "too loud." And you can't equate what you're hearing into decibels unless you have a sound level meter.


It depends on how loud you intend to go, with what speaker. Again, with a LESS powerful amp, one would want a MORE sensitive speaker. If you're worried your Pioneer is tricksey-spec'd at 80 watts per channel, but in reality with the front three channels firing in unison at max output over difficult-to-drive frequencies, it only can do 30 watts per channel, and you'll be asking of the amp 70 watts per channel....then you should get a MORE sensitive speaker. The Center 3 is more sensitive than the Center 1. And when you are sending bad distortion to the speaker, the larger Center 3 will be able to take it better than the smaller Center 1.


Some good stuff here. You can learn how manufacturers play with the specs to make the product look better. Like my spec-ing my car, "Max Speed: 130 mph (downhill 10% grade)."

So, this quote: post#61:

What's most important is that your speakers are efficient. If not (6 or 4 ohm, 89dB or lower), get a better AVR.

So he's labelling as not efficient (or not suitable for this receiver) 6 or 4 ohm speakers (they're not inefficient, just difficult to drive with an 8 ohm rated amp with a weak output), or 89 db or lower sensitivity speakers (which is what the Center 1 is). Because to achieve the same loudness, you'll have to turn up the amp MORE with the Center 1 (eg 70 watts). With the Center 3, you won't have to turn it up as much to achieve the same loudness (eg 56 watts), thus you're not stressing that weak amp as much.

So, in summary, if you have a weak amp and you're worried about it being asked to do more than it can handle, get a more sensitive speaker, or don't turn it up too loud.
If you have an insensitive speaker, then get a bigger amp.
If your insensitive speaker can't handle much power, then you also can't turn it up that much. So you weak amp will be fine.

Without an SPL meter it's hard for you too judge what's too loud, so that might be $50 well spent at your local Radio Shack.

I picked up my Monitor 7 Series 7 speakers last Monday. They aren't fully broken in yet, but I'm working on it.

First impressions are very good. I got the black ash cabinets, and I thought they look and feel just fine. The new look of the drivers I think make the speakers much more elegant.

I was blown away by the sound, the room they are in isn't that big, maybe 13x16 with 9 ft ceilings. I've listened to a variety of music through them, artists like Sting, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd. These cabinets seemed to work very well with everything. The one thing I noticed, is that the low-end seems to be louder when certain bass notes are hit. This probably has more to do with my room than the cabinet. The vocals were clean, and pleasant to listen to for long periods of time (so far).

I thought about needing a sub, but to be honest, in the room they sit in, I don't see a need. They handle home theater duties just fine with that low-frequency extension that they have. I'm very impressed at $900 for the pair. I'm sure I will have many happy listening hours ahead.

Hey guy's. I "auditioned" a set of Paradigm Monitor 7's on Saturday and, well I gotta tell ya, I was very impressed with what I heard. So much that I managed to snag a set for $998 CAD. The best thing about this was not only the quality and sound, but that the set was a Centre 3, two towers and two surrounds.

Obviously they are "last season's" so to speak, but not being a fashionista I could care less. I also picked up a Klipsch sub 12 to go with the Monitors for $350.

I am absolutely buzzing about this and cannot wait to fire them up, but here's the kicker. I won't be able to listen for at least 4 months coz I'm only at framing in the basement and my buddy who is doing the job with me is off for 4 months, so these things will be sitting in my upstairs closet winking and nodding at me til the new year!!!

Paradigms were purchased at Soundsaround down on MaCleod and the Klipsch was purchased from Bestbuy out in Westhills.

Gonna get a Denon AVR2112C which is currently going for $598 in Soundsaround to power these beasts.

So recap on that

2 paradigm monitor 7 towers
1 Paradigm monitor 7 centre 3
2 Paradigm rears
1 Klipsch sub 12"
1 Denon AVR2112C
all in $1946 ex tax
NICE!!!!
Anyone recommend a couple of decent "in ceilings" to make this a really good 7.1 set up?

Cheers guy's.

Wait, are you talking about the version 6 monitors or the new series 7 monitors?

I ask because you say "monitor 7 towers" and "monitor 7 center 3" but you also say they are "last seasons", which implies the old version 6 monitors. A little confused.

I was wondering this also since its a bit confusing when he says it that way! lol

Sorry dude, yes, they are v.6's

Also, I think Paradigm are changing the v designation and from now on it'll be "series" or s.7

Don't quote me on that, I'm not 100% on that yet.

And the reason I got all of those at that price is of course because they are making room for the new series 7's of the monitor 7 line.

Still a rocking good price imho

cheers

The new monitor series does look very nice, will be anxious to get some listening time with them at some point soon. I realize it is a global economy and all that, but I too am a bit sorry these are being manufactured in China. I was always a little bit proud to know that my Atom V-5's were manufactured in Canada, and not in China at the time of purchase. Makes me wonder how much more it would have cost per unit if they had stayed. Paradigm seems to have quite a bit of factory space/technology in place to build them still. Tim

What model surrounds did you get? I also bought a set last week Monitor 7 towers, CC190 center and ADP190 rears for $1180 including taxes. The surrounds that were listed with the $999 package were smaller ones than ADP190.
I am also interested to know if someone gets a chance to do a side by side comparison of v.6 and v.7. I still have a week left to exchange them to v.7. The sales guy who sold me these was also mentioning that v.6 are better buy as they were made in canada. The v.7 might sound a bit more neutral or warmer since they have changed the titanium tweeters to aluminium tweeters. But the sensitivity is lower in the newer models.

Hi I'm new here and not as educated on HT systems as you guys, advice pls.

I am deciding between the Def Tech 8060 series and Paradigm series 7 monitgor 11 for my HT. The room is 18 x 23 and I plan on using the speakers 90% HT. I have auditioned the Def Techs but not the Paradigms. Are these two a fair comparison?

I know this question has been abused in the past, but not with respect to the new series 7. Advice?

Fear not for eventually all Canadian audio products will be manufactured in China. Classe has moved production to China as has Anthem with their receiver (and integrated amps?) lineup. Now we have the lower end of the Paradigm line being manufactured there. Sooner or later all of the Paradigm speaker will be made in China.

If Classe can move to China then it's only a matter of time before Bryston does as well.

In the near future there will be no more true high end products made in places suck as NA, UK, Japan, etc.

No one wants to pay premium high end prices for gear made in China. If the company was already making stuff in China then it's not a big deal. But it's hard not to see reducing high quality gear such as Classe, Bryston, Paradigm, etc. to being made in China as cheapening the brands.

Every time I make a statement like this some smug, self-absorbed individual comes back and makes personal attacks on anyone that thinks like this.

Surely there is no way I'm alone in my thinking.