Digital Trends

Paradigm Monitor 7 and UltraCube 10

January 4th, 2008 | by Ben Fowler

Listening

For starters we popped in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata #14 (the “Moonlight Sonata”) Andras Schiff (ECM) – A very rich and lush recording. The Monitor 7’s impressed: The reverb on the piano sounded incredible – as if you’re actually in the concert hall with Andras Schiff. You can almost feel his fingers touching the piano. The bass extension is deep and commanding, which is hard to do with solo piano recordings. There’s a precious air surrounding the piano – the reverb in the recording is phenomenal and the Monitor 7’s are articulating that air with ease. The sound is detailed, rich, and full of life. The integration with the sub is seamless – we can’t tell where the towers stop and the sub starts.

Okay, so the piano sounds pretty darn good, but how do the Monitor 7’s do with vocals? We grabbed the ubiquitous audiophile reference (don’t hate us) of Dianna Krall’s The Look Of Love from her album by the same name. Krall’s voice is right up front – which is how they recorded it. But we do feel like the speakers are bringing them forward even more. It’s controlled though, and calculated nicely so that you get all the little sappy details in Krall’s voice but you don’t get slapped in the face with it. The ambience, or room presence, that these speakers create is really special. We would say this is one of the Monitor 7 highlights. Imaging is nice and open. As for imaging, they’re pretty rock solid: phantom center image is right on target, with nice panning of the instruments a few feet beyond the outside of the speakers. Emotionally it really draws you in.

Next we moved on to some blues. Keb Mo’s album The Door has a nice acoustic track called Anyway. Keb’s voice is slightly thin, like the lower portion of his voice has been slimmed down a little too much. We know this is partly the recording (he uses an unusual microphone for all his vocal recordings) and part is our Onkyo receiver. It sounds good, but just not quite as rich and deep as we’d like. This is likely attributed to the speaker’s smaller 5” midrange drivers. Track nine, Gimme What You Got, is a great tune layered with horns, strings, and some funky bass riffs. The bass is really sweet, very tight, and effortless. There’s plenty of power behind the sub and that allows it to have fun. You get the impression that this sub is a world-class sprinter out on a casual Sunday jog. We tried this track with the sub off and the receiver set to Direct (which deactivates the bass management). We were curious how the towers handled this bass on their own. It was an almost sort of full-range sound. It felt like the bass was extending towards just below 60Hz, but it just felt better with the sub on. For pop, rock, and other low-bass tunes most people will want the sub in the mix.

Lastly we wanted to see what the sub could REALLY do. Radiohead’s Pact Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box from his Amnesiac album starts off with some tight electronic low notes that sort of skip across the sound stage. A hard feat to pull off as the notes are extremely low and there’s hardly anything defining the attack of each note . But the system held up superbly and defined each note quite gracefully. As a testament to the Monitor 7/UltraCube 10 system’s full range abilities, when Thom York’s voice came in, you could feel his whining and uncertainty emotions filling the room, while the bass continued to rumble.

Conclusion

When we pulled the towers out of the box, took a look and gave them a listen (again, not knowing their actual price) we calculated that they might be priced at: $1500 - $2000 USD per pair. We were pretty well off the mark - The Paradigm Monitor 7 speakers are an incredible deal. The highs are sweet, the mids are richly detailed, and the bass is tight and accurate. Our only complaint is that the midrange could be a little richer on some vocal recordings. Additionally, the finish on these speakers left little to be desired in terms of a luxury finish – but now knowing their true price, we feel this is almost an uncalled for assessment. On a separate note, the UltraCube 10 sub rocks. Really. The Monitor 7/UltraCube 10 system blends together seamlessly and provides richly detailed and inviting musical experience for the audio connoisseur on a budget.

Pros:
• Compact design
• Full sound (especially for vocals and midrange)
• Neutral aesthetics

Cons:
• Vinyl grain finish looks a little cheap
• May have too much midrange detail for some listeners