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Paradigm Atom replacement suggestions ?

Bsmooth

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I have an old pair of Paradigm Atom 3.2's which I use with an old Dayton sub for my main system in my small living room. Recently I got a pair of Audioengine 5+ powered speakers for my bedroom, and they sound so much better than my old Atom's. The Audioengines are much more open and detaled and have a much better soundstage.
I thought the Atom's were good too, but maybe not so much any longer.
My question is what would be a good replacement speaker for my old Atom's ?
I have the Atom's wall mounted, so I can use them for movies as well.
After some research, these look good:
Dynaudio Emit M10 - Tested 2016

PSB Alpha P5 _ Tested 2020

Dali Spektor 2 - Tested 2019

Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 - Tested 2020
Any other suggestions or info on what I chose so far ?
 

westyjeff

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I have a pair of Atom’s v5, I still pull them out from time to time. I would recommend the Elac dbr62, they will sound a little flat at first compared to the Atoms but are very accurate speakers.
 

Steve Dallas

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Must they be wall mounted? What is your budget?
 
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Bsmooth

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Yes must be wall mounted, the room is literally just big enough to listen to music(barely) Budget hmm would like to keep it under $500 If I can.
Problem now is even the Atoms sound a bit flat, so the Elac's might not be much of a change.
 

tvrgeek

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Of all I have heard recently, I likes the Revels. I only heard the AMT ELAC and it was horribly, horribly bright. Focal sounded just plain weird and they were way over your budget.
Track down Warfdales. It used to be Polk was safe, but I don't know now. PSB, Monitor, Definitive, GoldenEar. The press seems to rave about Klipsh, but I find them brash. In the $500 pair class, you are making a lot of tradeoffs. Which you prefer only you know.
 
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Bsmooth

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I'm only looking for the nice top end, anything below 60 hz or so will be handled by the Sub. I've also heard the newer types of tweeters, ribbon and AMT that I'm not real familiar with. Horn tweeters were a big deal back in the day, especially Klipsch.
I remember using them in a speaker build many moons ago, great dispersion but they can be a bit on the brash side as you say.
I'm not familiar with Revels.
 

tvrgeek

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A decent ribbon costs 600 and up, bo not budget. The lessor AMT's are also not impressive. Bright and resonance issues,
For budget, best to stay mainstream
 

MaxBuck

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The Atoms were all-time low-SPL champions IMO. They lost their luster when you tried to drive them louder, though.
 
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Bsmooth

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By low spl, do you mean they needed lots of amp power to get loud ? In other words very low efficiency ?
 

BillH

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Dennis just came out with a new version of his affordable accuracy kit for $325/pair. Given his other accomplishments, I'd recommend giving them serious consideration.
 
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Bsmooth

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Just wondered since Revel gets great reviews, how about the Revel M55XC, they even have wall mounts ?
Second choice maybe the Revel Concerta2 S16 ?

 
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TurtlePaul

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Try putting the Audioengines on the wall just to try. You may learn that the on-wall in a worse room is the biggest part of the issue and not the speaker itself. On wall speaker placement creates bass boost below 150 Hz which can make them sound muddy. Also, being close to the wall pushes up the frequency of the quarter wave cancelation into the lower midrange while also increasing the depth of this cancelation because the back wave doesn't benefit from a fall off in intensity due to distance.

Specifically created on-wall speakers like the Revel S16 have wider angled baffles to minimize the back wave cancelation and have much much less baffle step compensation in their crossover networks to prevent the bass boomyness. Studio monitor speaker like the Genelec 8020d have low-frequency filter switches to address the bass boomyness.

If you don't understand any of that - typical speakers made to be placed on stands will always sound bad against a wall, so don't spend money trying to chase a problem which won't be fixed with traditional stand-mount speakers. You need on-wall speakers or studio monitors to work on walls.
 

MaxBuck

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By low spl, do you mean they needed lots of amp power to get loud ? In other words very low efficiency ?
No. I mean that they produced clear, pleasing sound when driven at low levels.

I drove these things with an Adcom GFA-535 power amp, so amplification power wasn't an issue. My wife's insistence that I "turn that music down" was the issue.
 
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