PARADIGM speaker choice...help please

unless you have separate amps don't put towers as surrounds or rears. even if you have separates its pretty pointless because surround and rear channels don't get lower frequencies that the towers can play. bookshelfs can do surround perfectly.

I concur, there's no real need for towers in the surround location. The question might be dipole vs bookshelf, but if you've never tried dipole then you might not like them anyway.

Subs are not something you have to match to speakers usally. A good quality sub will do it's job and blend in. The most bang for buck subs are sold by internet direct companies like Hsu Research, Rythmik, SVS and several others. For a medium sized room, 6-700 should be all you need to spend.

On the dipole question, they are designed to send sound out on either side of the speaker, rather than directly out to the seating area. This creates a null, and the effect is prefered by some and not others. I believe Dolby prefers direct radiating speakers and DTS allows for them if situated on the back wall. But most just have typical bookshelves.

The Paradigm Studio 10 speakers are probably the ideal speakers for your case.

Dipoles are very tricky to place and use properly, and they just screw up the system if you don't get it right. They won't work in many rooms. My advice is don't go there.

Rythmic makes the best subs IMO.

How big is your room? Do you actually need two?

The FV12 is very good, and only $549.

I would try one first, and get a second if needed. One of those will do the job in 90% of the cases. There is no advantage to two if one will supply enough low bass.
Edited by commsysman - 7/13/12 at 12:39pm

These guys are, in my opinion, wrong with regards to the statements that, "Surrounds do not get any low end information". There is a fairly good amount of bass that is pipped through the surrounds. If money is an important factor and you are limited on it, then I would go for the mini monitors, but, with that being said, I believe that you would see a pretty significant step up in performance for you movie watching experience. You simply can not imagine what it sounds like to have full range speakers all the way around, until you DO have full range speakers all the way around.


So to sum up my opinion, if you can afford to go with the Monitor 7's in the surround positions, then by all means, go for it! If you do, you will be very happy you did!

Large full-range speaker all around can be a new experience IMHO, especially with multi-channel music. Keep in mind you might need a liitle more power. In my case I added a 2 ch amp for the front mains.
Edited by whitey019 - 7/15/12 at 7:25am