I have heard the phantoms when I sold Paradigm years ago and they are good for the money. I do like what Mr.Peabody said and play with the placement of the paradigm speakers.They are placement sensitive. I would pull them further away from the walls and your bass will improve. I have a pair of Paradigm monitor 7's from the mid 90's that I have heavily modified but I still use the same midbass drivers and cabinets and I had to pull mine away from the walls around 2 feet or so to get the bass to tighten up. Just play around with placement. Also they are sensitive to placement when it comes to imaging and soundstaging but when you finally get it right they will do you well.