Paradigm Surrounds

[Malakei]

Hey guys I finally broke down and bought some paradigm speakers for my yammie... I hear the yammie is a harder sounding amp where the paradigms are softer making them the ambiguously gay duo Anyhow... i ended up with a pair of monitor 3s and a cc270 center. What do you suggest for surrounds or should i use the monitor3s as surrounds and put something bigger on my fronts. HMMMMMM. Or should i get ADP370s or should i try and match the centre with 270s .... all these questions... i wish i was smarter

 

[cam]

All the speakers you are mentioning are indeed good in their own right, but right off the bat, you have errored by not matching your front three. It is critical to get a seamless timbre match from your front three. The cc370 is only a few more dollar$ then the 270 and will give you a way better presentation with your monitor 3's. If money is a concern you could down grade the 3's to the mini's and up grade the 270 to the 370. Now for your surrounds, if multi channel music is high on your list then you should match with some mini's or 3's, if HT is king then you could either go with direct firing speakers not necessarly timbre matching such as the titans or you could go with di-poles such as the adp170's or even better the adp370's. With di-poles, some people love them and some people can't stand them. If you could let your store maybe let you take some to demo to find out for your self so you know for sure. Having said that, I have the cc370, 7's, and the adp370's and I find the adp's work just fine for multi channel music, and absolutley spectacular for HT. If you do stay with all monitors, you could keep your 3's for your mains which will work just fine, match it with the cc370, and use mini's for your surrounds or if money and taste permits get the adp370's. If you still have money to burn you could then look at trading in those 3's for 5's,7's, 9's, or 11's. I chose the 7's because I had the money, I liked the sound, and I did not want to look at speakers on stands for my mains but when I was demoing the monitor line I did prefer the 3's over the 5's and mini's if I was going to buy a standmount.

 

[Jason Coleman]

I'll second the vote for dipole surrounds...any of the ADP offerings will work quite nicely. They provide an enveloping and broad sound, not concentrated or localized like a direct-firing surround might be. For a high-end multi-channel system, you'd obviously want to go with matching mains, center, and surrounds, but for the average HT, I'd sugest the ADP's. Again, it's a matter of taste and preference, so give them a listen and let your ears decide, but personally I prefer the dipoles over the monopoles as surrounds.

Jason