Monitor SE Atom

These are wonderful speakers. Fantastic bottom end and bright highs. They have a beautiful fit and finish and an amazing price point. I bought my last set of Atom?s in 1994 and they were great until yesterday when they finally blew. You can?t beat 29 years of great music ?. You won?t be disappointed in these speakers!

Very impressive speaker for the money. The sound is natural with tons of detail and clarity. Not overly forward in terms of sound. I have these setup with my old Pioneer SX-680 and they do the trick. Hours upon hours of listening and moderate sound levels with no fatigue!! Just pure enjoyment. Better bass than focal/Klipsch at this price point. And the fit and finish is beautiful. I can?t wait to try the premier series next and invest in a DAC and newer amp. Thank you Paradigm!!

I bought the PARADIGM MONITOR SE ATOM speakers two weeks ago when they offered 25% off. I haven't used Paradigm speakers before. I don't know what to expect when I bought them. I worried they didn't produce enough bass and was planning to buy a subwoofer along with it but I was wrong. I used them mainly as front speakers with my 80 watts per channel 5.1 home theater AV receiver in a 11'x15' living room, with only two speakers set up. My listenning position is 13' from the speaker. Adjusting the speaker distance setting from the receiver can improve the sound quality. I am surprised that the ATOM produces fair enough bass. I do feel the vibration on sofa. The bass does not feel thin or artificial. Listen from the movie Braveheart sound track, the bass is deep. It meets my expectation, from a non-technical, non-audiophile perspective. So I decided not to buy a subwoofer. Most people say you need a subwoofer with bookshelf speaker. It is not with the ATOM to me unless you really want a very full and rich feel in music. I live in a townhouse that I can't crank up the volumn too loud. Hans Wetzel from Soundstageaccess wrote a very good review on this speaker. I usually doubt those reviews because I guess they were paid to do so but this time I concur with him and I experienced the same sound quality from my ATOM as he described it. He didn't lied. I don't need to repeat what he said, just read his review. It also has the link on sound measurement graphs in that review. You need to test the speaker with high resolution music sources and this speaker really delivers. The ATOM sounds (bass, middle, high) very natural, especially good at vocal, not tainted/colored by the speaker itself. It can faithfully produce the singer's voice. My wife can hear three distinct voices when three people sing together. It has good sound stage and separation. You feel like the person sing just in front of you, from a specific point. It has dimension. I used to have computer speakers, they can be loud but lack dimension, sound just fill up the space without character. The ATOM is not a near field computer speaker. It has enough power for my living room. So I am very happy with the ATOMs, also happy with Paradigm. The ATOMs really deserves some good comments.

Recently bought a pair to replace my old Atoms, the original Atoms from more than 20 years ago, as the foam surrounds have rotted away. These new Atoms are very impressive with a very smooth and natural sound across a variety of musical genres. While you will not get chest thumping bass, nevertheless there is good extension in to the lower frequencies. These will be excellent for surrounds (what I'll use them for), for bookshelf speakers in a small apartment, and even mains with the addition of a sub.

I recently purchased these speakers for my front home theatre 2.1 setup with Polk Subwoofer running through a new Yamaha Receiver. I can tell you they sound amazing! the detail, mids and bass are impressive, being an "entry level" price point bookshelf speaker for Paradigm, it sounds professional and clean. I heard stunning detailed sound in shows I normally watch, just impressed!! Bonus, and they look beautiful! Two thumbs up! Keep up the good work Paradigm