Just wondering if anyone has had a chance to listen to and compare these two speakers. They are about the same size, configuration and price. Edster...any thoughts?
as a matter of fact, if I had not gone Internet-direct I probably would've bought the Monitor 5 myself. I enjoyed them, heard them in a shop through a variety of receivers one of which was the Marantz 5500, which was a good combo. Excellent detail though leaning a bit on the bright side at high volumes, but overall a very open and dynamic presentation. Preferred it to the Monitor 7 and 9 actually, though those obviously had better bass. I don't think the midrange performance could keep up with the 340s though.
Plus I figure if a brick-and-mortar store is selling the Monitor 5s for the same price as the Ascend 340s, the Paradigm-direct price (if Paradigm ever sold direct of course) would probably be around $400 instead of $550-600 which indicates they are probably not of the same manufacturing quality/cost.