Paradigm Monitor 9, Series 7 Loudspeaker

For instance, put on a full-range, well-recorded rock disc, such as Mobile Fidelity's SACD of Stevie Ray Vaughan's The Sky Is Crying (which I reviewed in Issue 220), and marvel at the relatively compact $1198 Monitor 9s' impactful low-frequency response. It's not that this speaker goes spectacularly low—its spec'd response is a respectable 31Hz—but the choices made by Paradigm's design team, and improvements made over the V.6 model, create a feeling of bass—fast, tuneful, and reasonably weighty—that's nevertheless quite satisfying. While I imagine that home-theater users, or those into bass-heavy music might wish to add a subwoofer (and Paradigm offers a range of these, too), the walloping drums in, say, "Little Wing," were just that, with good snap from the snare, and a nice recreation of size and power from tom and kick drums. You'll also hear how Paradigm's latest aluminum dome tweeter seems altogether more open, dynamically free, and less bright than past versions (though this takes some time, as the tweeters are initially a bit hard and edgy). Vaughan's Strat peals and shrieks as the late-great lets rip; yet it purrs sweetly, too, during quieter passages. Dynamic range is also impressive. Although the Monitor 9 may not be as fully nuanced as my reference Maggie 1.7s during the quiet opening movement of Schumann's Märchenbilder with Martha Argerich at the piano and Nobuko Imai playing viola [Phillips CD], the speaker steps out during the lively second movement. Again, though, the Monitor 9's designers did a fine job of letting this speaker fly pretty high, without overtaxing the relatively small drivers.