OK today I decided to buy a pair of Paradigm Monitor 3s, that are the ver3. Got them for a decent price,from my local dealer, and if I don't like them, they can go back. Here is something unusual that happened today.

I took them home, hooked them up to my NAD receiver, and proceeded to run my test disc, so I could set my levels using my new spl meter. I am playing just a test note, like white noise. First the left speaker, check. Then the center speaker, check. Then the right speaker, huh, the sound is slightly different here. A little more distortion, almost crackly like. I asked my wife if she could tell the difference, and sure enough she could. SO I switch speakers, and move the left to the right, and vice versa.

Same speaker, making this slightly odd noise again. It is like listening to white noise (that is already distorted?) and adding just a little bit of crackle to it around the edges. Nothing severe, but yet noticeable at higher voumes). I take the one Monitor 3 out of the loop, and put my Energy C-3 back in its place. Crackly sound gone. So now I assume, the tweeter must be damaged. So I play some music, dvd, and everything sounds fine. No crackle that I can tell.

I call my dealer, he thinks it is weird, but tells me he will put a new tweeter in it if I want. So I bring it back to him, we hook it up, and I bring my test disc with me. And now no crackly noise at all. Sounds just fine. But he tells me, he will still get me a new tweeter if I want it (and I do), but I go home a bit confused. As it turns out, the tweeter for the Monitor 3 is a different size than what he had on hand, so I couldn't get a new one right away. In about 2 weeks.

So when I go home, I set it up again, thinking that maybe it was just a weird coincidence. But when I played the test sound again, sure enough it was back. Wife could tell from the next room. But otherwise the speaker sounds great, although I haven't driven it really hard yet (we did in the showroom, and it was fine).

Anyone have any ideas as to why this might be? Something with the crossover maybe? I don't think it is the amp, or dvd player (the other Energy speakers played it fine, as did the other Monitor 3). Could it be my room? I am at a loss, and thought maybe I missing something obvious. Maybe I shouldn't even worry since it is just a test tone, and not real music, which seems to be fine. Just thought I would share this, and see if anyone has an answer....