YBArcam

Tannoy is a funny company they have made speakers I felt were way to polite sounding and rather boring (like what I hear from most Thiel and Vandersteen speakers). Though that is probably not a bad side of the spectrum over longer listening for some listeners but they tend to bore me to death. Then there are Tannoy speakers that will blow you into next week like their pro and club speakers with 18inch dual concentrics in a club that can just pound but also sound quite cohesive and refined but they ran something like $15k Tannoy has a lot of offerings and some are better than others.

With Paradigm I am not a big fan for 2 channel. I get the good reviews and I also get that none of the reviewers actually buy them for themselves. They're a product that after you've heard a lot of speakers you would sell them. They're a line of speakers to be sold not owned as my dealer would say (and incidentally he's one of the biggest Paradigm dealers in Canada). Not a single guy working there and selling them would actually buy them and put them in their home. I get the appeal - they're pretty inexpensive and some of them are actually quite good value. The Atom is a great little speaker and the Titan is not bad and they have a nice little one with an 8 inch woofer (monitor 3 I believe) not perfect but they were punchy and fairly refined.

People like them and they get good press (so does everything) the trick is trying to read between the lines. The midrange lower treble that is a deal breaker for me on most of their speakers. The floorstanders since the very good V2 series seem to sound hollow and boxy. They sound like Home theater speakers. I suppose it will come down to taste because plenty of their competitors pretty much sound and do the same sorts of things. But then that was the point in suggesting different designs. They may be more about nuance and subtlety and micro-dynamics rather slam. Of course if you listen to rock and movies then it makes sense. It is a new era after all and nobody really listens to classical or jazz anymore. Walking through the big box music chains tell us this clearly.