quote:
I think it is a myth that big speakers are somehow too much for a small room.
For dedicated 2 channel use i will say aside from the aesthetics part of being too large for a room, which applies above, there is also the physical footprint required for placement/positioning and a bookshelf might be more forgiving in that area. The only other potential issue, assuming a floor stander will produce lower frequencies than a bookshelf is that in a very small room the bass can be overloading.
For HT use i absolutely agree. The room correction software on the receiver will pretty much take care of or alleviate the issues i mentioned above.
The other issue that most people don't take into account that is helpful when deciding between the two is the cost of stands/mounts which can bring the overall cost up pretty quickly.
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Haven't listened to those NHT but have been impressed with some of their older speakers.
Having owned and currently owning a slew of Paradigm speakers I am not a fan of the current offerings and would not recommend those.
While i have always hated the look on pretty much all of their speakers and thus never bought any Definitive does make some very good sounding speakers.
One brand you did not list that would be worth checking out would be Golden Ear. While they may be slightly out of your price range or at the very top of it and the looks are basically on par with Definitive,imo, those ribbon tweeters do sound good. If i were to replace my paradigm 5.1 system today they would certainly be near the top of my list.