Let me apologize up front for both starting another one of these threads and also for posting such a long thread.

I suppose it is best to get my primary question out of the way so here goes...

Does anyone here have experience with Paradigm Monitor 7 speakers and the CMT-370 and/or Sierra-1 speakers that could offer their opinion of the sonic characteristics of each and comparisons/contrasts? I understand how subjective something like this is and I don't expect anyone here to tell me what I will like but I'm hoping any input by people who have listened to each can help me decide if moving to one of the Ascend models would be a good move for my tastes, needs, wants, etc.

There are certain things I love about the Monitor 7's and there are things I have never been completely satisfied with. I would have to say they have been a good investment overall as they tend to do more things well than bad - and they have lasted almost four years in my system.

What I do like about the Monitor 7
The things I do really like about them is their ability provide good detail, imaging, and separation on the certain content/sources. They present a nice soundstage for movies and two channel music. The detail and separation is really good for jazz, jazz fusion, and other music that has natural separation between the instruments. I'm not sure if that last statement makes sense or not but the things I don't like should help clear up what I mean.

What I do NOT like about the Monitor 7
  1. They tend to sound overly bright when played loud and even at moderate levels for some content. I would consider it to be harsh actually.
  2. The separation I hear and love so much on jazz, jazz fusion, etc. vanishes when the music or movie soundtrack has too much going on at the same time. It seems like the midrange and/or tweeters become overwhelmed when there are too many distinct instruments/sounds competing for their attention within the same frequency range. The different instruments just seem to meld together into a muddled mess.

I have been able to tame most of the harshness of the speakers by applying acoustic treatments in my room. The application of room treatments very well could be the best investment I have made in this room. The room is rather small and is comprised mostly of hard surfaces so it was absolutely necessary.

I guess my primary goal is to see if I can find speakers to replace my Monitor 7's that will eliminate the two issues I have with them but that will not force me to give up any of the characteristics I like and/or love about them - without costing a fortune.

I would also replace my current center channel speaker to ensure I have a good timbre match across the front soundstage. I would like to retain my current surround and rear speakers though. The rear speakers are in-wall speakers so I don't really want to mess with the hassle of swapping them out and I'm pretty happy with the surround performance of this system..at least for now. It seems like a it would be better to keep the four surround channels voice matched even if they are different timbre than the front soundstage as opposed to having the front three the same as the surrounds but different than the rears. Feel free to offer up your opinions on this as well.

Here is my current system:
  • Mains: Paradigm Monitor 7 v4
  • Center: Paradigm CC-370 v4
  • Surround (sides): Paradigm ADP-370
  • Rear (back wall): Paradigm AMS-250
  • Subwoofer: Elemental Designs A5 - 350 (OK, so not all Paradigm)
  • AVR: Onkyo TX-SR705
  • AMP (driving the three front channels): Emotiva XPA-3
  • Blu-ray/gaming: PS3
  • More gaming / media center extender: XBOX 360
  • HD-DVD: Toshiba HD-A35
  • SACD/DVD-A/CD Audio: Marantz DV6001
  • SAT: DirecTV HD DVR Plus
  • TV 61" JVC LcOS RP - Yeah, I know

I also have a pair of Buttkickers mounted to the underside of the sofa which are powered by a BKA1000 and I'm using a Behringer FBQ2496 to smooth out some nasty room modes in the LFE.

My room is 11.5' x 16' x 8'. I have sound absorption on the whole front/screen wall, at the early reflection points of the side wall, and at the early reflection points of the rear wall. Additionally, I have bass traps floor to ceiling in the two front corners.

I've had the system for about four years now and I've upgraded/improved various components over the years. I started with a pair of Paradigm PW-2100 subs and a second pair of ADP-370's for the rear channels. I was never really crazy about the di-poles for all four surround channels and I'm much happier with the current configuration. The two 10" subs did a decent job with music but never had the extension or authority I wanted in movies - which is why I originally installed the Buttkickers. the eD sub has taken care of this and has served me very well in my smallish room.

The EMO amp is a recent purchase and I have been very happy with it so far. I originally used a Yamaha RX-V2500 AVR in with this system but replaced it with the ONK when I added BD and HD-DVD to my system so I could pass/process the new hi-rez audio from those sources. I was never completely happy with the sound of the ONK for music playback - especially two channel. The detail was lacking almost like there was a light veil over the speakers and the soundstage seemed smaller and more 2 dimensional than it did with the Yamaha. The EMO has rectified these issues very well. The detail and soundstage is better than ever.

I will close by giving a breakdown on my listening preferences for this system and room.

I know everyone likes to know the split between music and HT but that is really hard for me as this changes from week to week in my house so I will say it is an even 50/50 split.

I/we usually watch between two and four movies a week. The movies we watch range from animation and kids movies, drama, and action/sci-fi/fantasy. A little bit of everything really. I know the CC-370 isn't the best center channel and either of the Ascend center channel speakers I'm considering should be a noticeable improvement for dialog and other center channel duties.

I usually listen to music at least two or three hours a night. My music listing is probably a mixture of ~60% listening to background music while I work on the laptop and 40% "critical" listening where I sit with the lights dimmed and not doing anything else. I would speculate my music listing sources would be about 65% two channel and 35% multi-channel (SACD/DVD-A). I listen to a pretty eclectic mix of music. I like music from almost every conceivable genre Here's what I have listened to today...
  • Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (CD) two channel
  • Jewel - Pieces of You (CD) two channel
  • Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad (DVD-A) multi-channel
  • Keb' Mo' - Just Like You (SACD) two channel
  • 3 Doors Down - Away from the Sun (SACD) two channel
  • U2 - Go Home: Live from Slane Castle Ireland (DVD) multi-channel
  • David Sanborn - Timeagain (DVD-A) multi-channel
  • Porcupine Tree - Deadwing (DVD-A) multi-channel
  • XM/Sirus stations: The Spectrum, Classic Vinyl, Watercoolers, The Pulse, and Bluegrass Junction - all two channel (I never listen to two channel sources in multi-channel on this system - I just don't care for the way it sounds. I think it completely destroys the soundstage and sounds "wrong")


About the only thing I watch on TV, other than movies is sports (college football, college basketball, and NFL) and nature/eduTV like Dicovery, History, etc. I do also watch the series Heroes and my wife forces me to watch American Idol .

I am a recreational video gamer and log anywhere between 2 and 20 hours a week playing depending on if there is a game that has really captured my attention. This includes about an hour two or three days a week with the family playing Rock Band 2.

Oh, and I'm not really concerned about the price difference between the CMT-340 and Sierra-1 speakers so cost would not be a deciding factor. I also think I should be able to fill a room like mine just fine with either so efficiency shouldn't be a big factor either. I also never (OK, very rarely) listen to anything at reference levels. I have my system calibrated to 75dB and usually watch movies at -15. Music is played at 50dB - 60 dB when used for background and between 60dB - 80dB when critical listening.

See why I felt I needed to apologize for the long post now? There are bound to be a few typos in a tome like this that I missed so my apologies for that as well.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.