Polk RTI10 vs. Paradigm Studio 20 or Mini Monitor

[Silverbullet]

I need some advice and i'm hoping to get some help from all your expertise(1st time in a forum for me). I want a floor standing speaker(Polk Rti10), but my wife wants a smaller bookshelf in either the Paradigm Studio 20 or i was considering the Mini Monitor. I'm currently running a Yamaha RXV1300 and the room is a rectangle 13'x17' with the speakers in the corner. If i cannot convice my wife to go with the floor standing speakers, which of the two bookshelf Paradines would you suggest. I will of course be adding the corresponding Center Speaker that works best with each. Help

[jasmit]

Welcome to the forum. I never heard those particular Polk floorstanders, so I can't comment on them. I have heard the Mini Monitors and I own the Studio 20's. Between those two bookshelf speakers, there is no comparison -- the 20's are far better sounding speakers -- to me. Of all of the speakers I've auditioned, the 20's are the best sounding speakers for the money. For small speakers, they have very good bass -- good enough that for most music you would not need a sub. If you're a big HT guy, a sub would be in order.

Do yourself a favor and go give the 20's a listen. My best advice is that you take some time and audition a whole bunch of speakers. For the amount of money you will put into speakers and other audio gear, you owe it to yourself to listen to as many speakers as you can. Take the Mrs. along.

[fahertyps]

I need some advice and i'm hoping to get some help from all your expertise(1st time in a forum for me). I want a floor standing speaker(Polk Rti10), but my wife wants a smaller bookshelf in either the Paradigm Studio 20 or i was considering the Mini Monitor. I'm currently running a Yamaha RXV1300 and the room is a rectangle 13'x17' with the speakers in the corner. If i cannot convice my wife to go with the floor standing speakers, which of the two bookshelf Paradines would you suggest. I will of course be adding the corresponding Center Speaker that works best with each. Help

I have the Mini montors as part of my HT system. I was given the same criteria by my better half... That said, I am happy with them, but as I started searching for a pair of bookshelf speakers to go in a newly built book case in our main listening area, I was leaning toward the Studio 20s. After following the recommendations of several folks here, I ended up researching and buying Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (MA B2). I also needed a front ported speaker for this same reason. I am very happy with them. I have not heard the Center. Check them out. http://www.monitoraudio.com/products.../series/b2.htm

I bought mine at Saturday Audio.

Happy hunting.

[Lensman]

I need some advice and i'm hoping to get some help from all your expertise(1st time in a forum for me). I want a floor standing speaker(Polk Rti10), but my wife wants a smaller bookshelf in either the Paradigm Studio 20 or i was considering the Mini Monitor. I'm currently running a Yamaha RXV1300 and the room is a rectangle 13'x17' with the speakers in the corner. If i cannot convice my wife to go with the floor standing speakers, which of the two bookshelf Paradines would you suggest. I will of course be adding the corresponding Center Speaker that works best with each. Help

Since your budget seems to be right around $1000, I have to agree with the others (and your wife) in recommending bookshelves over floorstanders. I have yet to hear a set of floorstanders in this price that didn't have some kind of sonic issues marring the sound. I think if you do some auditioning, you'll find you can easily outclass those RTi10s with a pair of decent bookshelves joined with a sub. You could probably get a pair of Mini Monitors and a PDR-10 or 12 for the same money as the RTi10s.

Having said this, speakers are a very personal thing and you should definitely audition everything you're considering before make a decision. Higher price doesn't always equal better sound. I auditioned Polk's $1,000 LSi9s and chose Paradigm's $339 Mini Monitors over them. I was also exceedingly impressed by Monitor Audio's Silver S1s. I constantly see raves for the Studio 20s and they probably are better than the Mini Monitors. I might have bought them myself, but no one in a 400 mile radius stocks them and I refuse to buy any speaker I can't hear first.

Just do one thing if you buy bookshelve speakers: put them on decent stands. Don't set them on... bookshelves. The difference in sound quality is substantial.

[Silverbullet]

Thanks, i was looking at the monitors listed above and then i got suckered into the PSB site, and yet still really sold on the paradigms. My budget is for a whole system for around $1500. I might be lucky though, it seems the WAF might have loosened up a little and i might be able to go to a floor standing speaker in which case i really have my eye on the Studio 60, but that blows my whole wad unless i can find a good used set. I might have to do the mains and center this year and rears next year. For now i could use my Polk M3's that i have for now as rears and then upgrade. Any thoughts on the PSB's, they seem to be very affordable and got some great reviews.

[Lensman]

Thanks, i was looking at the monitors listed above and then i got suckered into the PSB site, and yet still really sold on the paradigms. My budget is for a whole system for around $1500. I might be lucky though, it seems the WAF might have loosened up a little and i might be able to go to a floor standing speaker in which case i really have my eye on the Studio 60, but that blows my whole wad unless i can find a good used set. I might have to do the mains and center this year and rears next year. For now i could use my Polk M3's that i have for now as rears and then upgrade. Any thoughts on the PSB's, they seem to be very affordable and got some great reviews.

I auditioned speakers by PSB (as well as Polk, Monitor Audio, Vienna Acoustics and JMLab) intending to spend $1000 on a pair of bookshelves and was quite surprised when I ended up preferring the $339 Mini Monitors over the more expensive choices. I now agree with many others who believe Paradigm offers exceptional bang for the buck. Having said that, all the others are good and each sounds more different from the others than you'd think they could. You really need to listen to them to know which one will sound the best to you. If your budget allows doing things in stages, I think buying the mains and center and going back later for the sub and surrounds is an excellent way to go.

[Silverbullet]

Can you tell me what you know of PSB and why you did not choose them. Which model did you audtion from PSB. I know the Studio line is awsome and they really do sound soo much better then the monitor, but for the same speaker in the Studio, it's almost triple the cost.

[RGA]

See I don;t get why the wife is bothered by floorstanders. Standmounts take up the same footprint - once you buy stands for them they are usually just as tall and wide etc. Standmounts can sound better but you give up bass - most of the time.

As for speakers - listen to many many many different kinds of speakers. You will probably notice that most are very similar in design - some sort of 6 inch woofer with a metal tweeter - generally i'm not a fan of most of these - try some different designs - for $1k you can do pretty good IMO better than what you've looked at thus far - but they're all well built.

good luck with whatever you get.

[axelsrd]

I need some advice and i'm hoping to get some help from all your expertise(1st time in a forum for me). I want a floor standing speaker(Polk Rti10), but my wife wants a smaller bookshelf in either the Paradigm Studio 20 or i was considering the Mini Monitor. I'm currently running a Yamaha RXV1300 and the room is a rectangle 13'x17' with the speakers in the corner. If i cannot convice my wife to go with the floor standing speakers, which of the two bookshelf Paradines would you suggest. I will of course be adding the corresponding Center Speaker that works best with each. Help

Before I got my Monitor 7's, I was using Mini Monitors for front and Paradigm Titans for the rear with a CC370 center. The Mini/Titan combo sounded fantastic for music and HT. I ended up selling the Titans and moving the mini's to the rear with the monitor 7's up front. To be honest, I think the mini's up front and a pair of Titans in back would do just fine for you. You will however probably need a sub if you want that deep base that HT provides.

[Lensman]

Can you tell me what you know of PSB and why you did not choose them. Which model did you audtion from PSB. I know the Studio line is awsome and they really do sound soo much better then the monitor, but for the same speaker in the Studio, it's almost triple the cost.

I auditioned the Image B25s. I didn't choose them because they were the worst sounding speakers I heard. They were harsh, shrill and constrained. BUT, I wouldn't go on my experience to make a buying decision because I don't believe I got a fair listen to them. The local PSB dealer was new in business and had just added the PSB line. The speakers I heard had been in the store three weeks and I was told I was the third person to give them a listen. The guy was nice but kind of gave me a blank look when I mentioned break-in. This leads me to believe they'd only been played a handful of hours tops. Given their all-metal drivers, I'd guess the PSBs should've been played 50-75 hours before putting them on the floor. As proof, lt me say I had a much more pleasing experience auditioning a pair of Monitor Audio Silver S1s. The guy at that store told me he'd spent 80 hours breaking them in.

If you're looking for alternatives closer in price to the Mini Monitors, you might consider giving JMLab's Chorus S line and Monitor Audio's Bronze line a listen. Though I didn't listen to MA's Bronze series, I was quite taken with the speed and detail of the Silver S1s. As for JMLabs, I actually auditioned several bookshelves and floorstanders in the Chorus and Cobalt lines as well as a pair of Utopia Nova Be speakers. I was exceedingly impressed by how much JMLabs was able to transfer from their top-of-the-line. The differences in the sound from their $350 Chorus 705S bookshelves and their $40,000 Utopia Nova Bes was not anywhere near as extreme as I'd have expected. Ultimately though, JMLab's philosophy of a more laid-back high end just wasn't my cup of tea. But if you're looking for a smooth, warm speaker that's extraordinaily comfortable to listen to, you might like these.