I listened to the paradigm cinema 90's a while back when looking for desktop speakers for the office. I didn't like them at all. Compared to the paradigm atom monitor, the 90's midrange was muddier and not nearly as well defined as the atom's. And I'm not a huge monitor fan in general, only listened to the 90's cause they were on sale. They both have about the same low end freq response and the highs were about the same but the midrange driver was clearly inferior to the atom. I would only get them if they were on sale and that sale price was all you can afford. I'd definitely go with what others have said and get better quality mains, center and sub and save up for the surrounds for later. I've not heard the ascends, but I ended up with energy RC-10's for the office and have been very happy with them. They're probly still 300 for the pair at vann's.