You'll get very different views on the importance of listening to speakers before buying. I am of the opinion that listening to moderate priced equipment in most stores is worthless because of the poor setup. Most stores have speakers at all different angles and heights playing through switch boxes and mid-fi receivers. They play tricks by putting higher margin speakers up high and lower-margin down low, and say "see how much better that sounds"? Levels are not matched. So it's a crap shoot.

It's a different story on the high end where they set things up in a lovely room, and actually move the speakers into the same spot for comparison through the same equipment. But that's pretty rare with a $300 speaker. So, I think we have to put faith in the views of owners who have lived with the products (recognizing the problem of cognitive dissonance), and the views of professional reviewers who give great information but unfortunately say positive things about everything - no point in offending potential advertisers -- and generally don't provide much helpful comparison information.

I have never heard the paradigms v.5, but I think it's safe to conclude from what I've read that they are well designed and well priced speakers, and among the best in class. The competition would be speakers like the PSB Alpha B1, Acculine A-1s, Epos ELS-3, maybe AV-123 XLS. I would really like to read a careful comparison between paradigm, psb and acculine. I'd recommend staying away from the acculine if you don't have a sub. But with a sub, it's an interesting option.

So, probably not much helpful information since I haven't heard very many of the speakers, and none of them side by side, but I have do doubt that the atoms are good quality speakers.

At $400 the Usher S-520, the Dana 630 and the Ascend 170se are in play. I've heard the Ascends, and they sound very good. I thought they were not pretty however.

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I guess I just keep hearing how good the Axioms are, and then I hear this. What really is the difference between the Axiom M2 v2 and the Paradigm Atom v5? Clarity? Accuracy?

Also, what amp would you recommend that is cheap but still has connections for a sub and still makes the Atoms sound great (or should I be looking for something else?)

Op Did you know Totem is also Canadian? Please do try and listen to them. You will be amazed.

Mine are on some rubber matting I found. Lol it is pretty good actually.

still deciding whats a good position for speakers. I have a bedroom with a rather large glass table. should I just put them about 100cm apart with my comp in the middle. Sort of a normal pc speaker setup?

Or let them sit on small wall shelves that I can get from ikea behind me as I work on the computer? So essentially I wouldn't be facing the music. Would it even matter?

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For playback of stereo recordings through speakers, ideally you want the speakers and your head to be at the vertices of an equilateral triangle, but with the speakers in front, not behind you. This applies to near-field monitoring as well as far-field (or point-source.) Near field is when your speakers are <8' from your ears; apparently your setup will be near-field.

The further away from the monitors you are, the more the acoustics of the room play a bigger role (e.g. the more the room colors the sound.) With near field you can easily place your head within the so called "critical distance," so that the direct soud coming from the speakers is louder than the reverberant sound coming from all the influences of your room acoustics.

Keeping the equilateral triangle (speakers in front of you) and staying within the critical distance are ideal to minimize room colorations, achieve the best possible stereo images, and enjoy the best sound reproduction accuracy your system is capable of.

(<--- smiles and a little know-it-all sparkle shines in his teeth )

i finally got my atoms, im setting them up as i type this.
i got a good deal, i think. 15% off.
the guy said he used to design for paradigm, so thats an added bonus. Having knowledgeable advice.

I'm excited.

I was browsing around the net today and a couple other speakers caught my eye: Aperion's Intimus bookshelf speakers (the 532-LR and 632-LR). Has anyone heard either of these? How do they sound/compare to the Paradigm Atoms?

no clue.


i'm enjoying my speakers... however I think my receiver is too bassy.
I really shouldnt have to manually lower the bass dial away from 0 to the negatives?

is it possible to get a good amp for <$100...

I LOVE my t-amps. And I have the original cheap ones. You might be able to find a Trends amp for $100 (although new retail is a bit more than that). It's a high-end version of the t-amp with better components, great build quality and good connectors. But for less than $50 you can get the old t-amp and a decent power supply. I think you might be surprised at how good it sounds. Far better than my Marantz receiver.

when you say t-amp you mean the one made by sonic design?

the one that can be powered by batteries? the one that has 15 watts per channel? is that enough to turn the atoms up loud?

Is it possible to connect a sub to any of these amps, or would I have to get a receiver instead? What's your recommendations?

t-amp is made by sonic impact. I believe (never tried) that it's underpowered with AA batteries. With a 12v 3 amp ps, it plays loud with all of the bookshelf speakers I've tried, including acoustic suspension which are hungrier than bass reflex (all else equal). So I think it would be fine with the Atoms. It would be good to find someone with a t-amp to try before you buy. I've been very impressed with the sound quality (as have many others). Of course there are a bunch of people on here who disagree, saying "it's bright" or "it only puts out 3 watts," bla bla bla - I wonder whether they've owned the t-amp and spent much time with it using a proper power supply. The trends is superior if you have more money to spend.

With respect to a sub, a t-amp is an integrated amp - it has a volume control knob on it. If you have a pre-amp, you could turn the volume all the way up and use it like an amp. Run the preamp --> sub in --> sub out --> T-amp. Then you use the sub to set the cross over. If you want true bass management, then you need an AV receiver.

you can also find a sub with high-level inputs/outputs (speaker type inputs and outputs) which means the chain would be:

amp (speaker out) --> sub (speaker in) --> sub (speaker out) --> Speakers

That means double the speaker wire, but that is better as speaker wire is usually cheaper than interconnects. Cross over controls + sub volume controls on the sub would be for sub management.

I also highly recommend NSM Model 5 speakers, cheap for the quality of sound and construction. Totally blew my paradigm mini-monitors away. If you're complaining about too much bass from the paradigm speakers and not enough resolution+imaging, these are the speakers you want.

As far as the NSM Model 5, $247.50 each is a little steep for me.

Regarding amps, what are the advantages of an amp over a receiver? If I were to eventually get a sub, I just don't yet see why I would get an amp instead of a receiver.

Using the high-level inputs is "better" because the wire is cheaper? This is head-fi. Sound quality through high-level inputs is seriously impaired.

moseboy: amps are cleaner. They don't have all that other stuff adding noise and distortion. But all amps and all receivers are not created equal. I've been very impressed with the Panasonic sa-xr55/57 true digital receiver. It has full bass management and sounds great using the digital inputs. Analog inputs are not so good. So it depends on your source. Most inexpensive receivers sound pretty bad.