SoundsGood

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Cherry Creek Audio

Summary:
I was originally looking at the Monitor 9s to replace my 25 year-old Polk Audio Monitor 7s. After careful listening, (I enjoy everything from Shakira to Seal to Santana to Schumann to Satriani to Jazz), I flipped back and forth about a million times between the 9s and the 11s, and to my mind's ear, the Monitor 11 v4s were the best balance of high, middle and low frequencies. Also, Dave Grusin and Acoustic Alchemy are so very much a pleasure to listen to.

I tried the Monitor 9 v4s and the 11 v4s with and without the PSB-12 subwoofer, and the 11s consistently sounded better. The old Polks are good down to about 25 cycles, however. The Monitor 11s can't quite reproduce sub frequencies, so a subwoofer might be a possibility in the near future. The old Polks will make someone very happy, but they are now being retired.

The sound coming from the Monitor 11s is absolutely fantastic ! They are so very clean and clear, with a huge soundstage. Vocals and all acoustic instruments are very natural sounding, as though I'm hearing them live. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. I still have yet to fully break them in - it's only been about 6 hours...Bring in your favorite music and demo the Monitor 11 v4s before you buy any other loudspeaker in that price range.

Strengths:
Clarity, accuracy, transparency, soundstage, and efficiency at all frequencies and volumes. The Monitor 11 v4s do not have to be played loudly at all to capture detail.

Weaknesses:
I wish I'd known about them sooner.

Similar Products Used:
I listened to Polks, Klipsch, Boston Acoustics, Infinity, B & W - all good, but none of them in this price-range even comes close.

dobyblue

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.33 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1225.00 from Gibbys Audio Video

Summary:
This review is for the Monitor 11 v4 speakers.
Price paid was CDN$1225
After buying an SACD player my little JBL satellites fell incredibly short of any sound worht mentioning.
I audioned the Paradigm 7, 9 and 11s, as well as a few models of Boston Acoustics. I also auditioned Polk Audio and Infinity speakers.
My price point was around $800 and I really enjoyed listening to the Monitor 7s, but once I had listened to the Monitor 11s I knew that I had to spend the extra couple hundred bucks for the sound I was looking for.
I use Ultralink Excelsior 2.4 cables to biwire the Paradigms.
When listening to two channel SACD now it's a whole new ball game. I am completely immersed in sound when listening to these speakers. Certain times I feel like the bass could be a little bit lower, but then I put in a CD or SACD with a little bit more low end like the song "Secret World" from Peter Gabriel's "Us" SACD and I truly am very happy. The imaging of the speakers is excellent, the mids and highs are very accurate and the bass always seems to keep up very smartly, with no overhang or muddiness so far.
One thing I will say is that if you're going from a run of the mill 5.1 system to speakers like these, you'll immediately notice two things.
1) Your other speakers become transparent
2) The audio bug will hit you and it's probably a neverending battle after that.
My immediate problem after buying these was that my center channel became very transparent. After having the Monitor 11s for two months I went out and bought the Paradigm Monitor CC-370 v4, which resolved the problem immediately. This also greatly improved the sound of the multi-channel DVD-A and SACD discs that I own, as well as really bringing to life deeper male voices in movies.
All in all I'm very impressed with the sound I know have and look forward to adding a pair of ADP-370 surrounds and a Servo-15 to really take my audio appreciation to the next level.

Strengths:
~Very efficient speakers, currently being run with a 110w per channel amp. I can't imagine wanting to listen to them much louder!
~Beatiful soundscape, you'll swear sometimes during 2 channel listening that you have not only a center channel running but surrounds as well.
~Very crisp highs, powerful mids and bass that is controlled, tight and extends quite well past 50Hz.

Weaknesses:
~For the full audio spectrum you'll definitely want to add a good subwoofer to these babies, but they do not sound bad without it. If you want to experience 20Hz though, adding a PW2200 or a Servo-15 would be a good idea.
Other than that there's not much bad to say at all about these speakers.

Dankinqc

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1250.00 from Stereo Plus

Summary:
* * This is for Monitor 11 V.3 (new) * * The price is in canadian money. Ive listened to a lot of speakers before going for the Monitor 11 (Energy, PSB, Polk Audio, B&W, Canton, Sony, Athena)and i finally chose the Paradigms Monitor 11.\ Here is my setup: Main : Paradigm Monitor 11 Center: Paradigm CC-370 Surround: Paradigm Monitor 7 Subwoofer: Paradigm PS-1200 Amplifier: Yamaha RXV-640

Strengths:
- Impressive sound imaging (sometimes i try only stereo without center and im often asking me if the center is running or no because of the nice imaging) - Powerfull tight bass response (this is not ultra low bass but really accurate and punchy) - Crystal clear mids and highs reproduction - All in all, really nice overall speaker witch can easily play both classical or hardrock as much as movies - Solid construction - Good warranty by company

Weaknesses:
- I cant play them as loud as id like since im in an apartment :)

Similar Products Used:
nothing for this price range...though the B&W were really good too but expansive.

jaslavin

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $1100.00 from Hi-Fi House

Summary:
Great speakers! Shopped lots of speakers before picking these, and they are far better that anything in the price range. Hook them up first before you buy a sub. I am not using a sub because they have pleanty of bass.

Strengths:
All

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Klipsch, Boston Acoustic, Polk

cappa69

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1002.00 from Bay Area Audio

Summary:
I listened Paradigm Monitor 7, 9, 11, 90p, PSB Stratus Silveri, Cambridge Soundworks MC300, MC400, MC500, T300, T500, Polk DM6700 and DM7200 and quite a few others. Out of these I liked PSB and Paradigm the most for towers. CSW satellites were great and Polk satellites were decent but did not stack up well against Silveri and Monitors. It was a tough decision between PSB and Paradigm but I finally bought Paradigm due to its smaller size, sleek looks and recommendations from a close friend. I took Mozzart CD (to test highs and mids) and Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (to test base) with me. Paradigm Monitor 7 did a great job but 11 was better. Monitor 9 was great too but a little heavy on base but with some tuning I'm sure it would have been good too. All three of them were exceptional. I hooked up my Monitor 11 with Yamaha RX-V2400 receiver and monster cable 12 AWG wire. Even without breakin the Monitor 11s sounded excellent on classical music since it was mostly highs and mids - very musical and better than anything I ever listened to. I was a little disappointed with the base in the begining but it improved with breakin. I switched to Kimber 8PR cable bi-wired and noticed more improvement in base. I also tweaked the receiver settings quite a bit and played with placement. I've been using these speakers for about 3 months now and have no more complaints about the base any more. The whole spectrum - highs, mids and base - is really exceptional now. For music Monitor 11s are extremely good. I did'nt have a sub so for HT I was still getting the feeling that there is something missing from the sound. I bought Cambridge Soundworks P500 sub, which by the way is really good. After setting it up I played some movies to test HT performance and was overjoyed. Then just for kicks I wanted to compare the base of Monitor 11 and the P500 sub. I switched off my subwoofer and cranked up the base on Monitor 11 - I changed the graphic equalizer setting on my receiver to give 12 db more to the deep base (set mids and highs to -6db and lows - 63 Hz - to +6 db) and then used the tone control to give an extra 6 db more to base. After these settings the receiver was pushing the base of my Monitor 11s by about 18 db harder than highs and mids. Guess what happened next? My monitor 11s were rocking. They gave me base that I could not believe. The base was not as tight or loud as the subwoofer but it was truely exceptional for a floorstander without active subwoofers. I think even if I loose the P500 subwoofer and continue to use just the Monitor 11 with their base at +18 db, my HT experience would be good enough for me - I'm not a base junky. BTW, if you're looking at Monitor 11, I would also advise you to consider Monitor 90p - the big brother of monitor 11. 90p has builtin subwoofer and it would not require a separate subwoofer thus saving you some space. You should also look at Axiom M80ti, which has better base than Monitor 11 but not as good as the 90p. I did not even consider Axiom since it is 4 ohms and they don't have dealers. I don't like buying speakers online before listening to them first. From the reviews I read Axioms are truely great speakers too. PSBs also performed as well as Paradigm.

Strengths:
Great highs, mids and base

Weaknesses:
None that I can see.

Similar Products Used:
Cambridge Soundworks MC300, Sony stuff not worth mentioning.