Years ago while traveling through Canada with the circus, I happened upon a pub in what seemed to be somewhere between the Ice Age and the beginning of existence. It was so cold my nipples had cut through my favorite flannel shirt. I knocked the head off a beer or two and exchanged lies about fly fishing with one of the locals.

As the night wore on and my blood warmed up I found myself at home. And I pondered: I had traveled thousands of miles with the circus working as a sword-swallowing palm reader. And I had heard the complaints of almost every man, woman, and child from Pensacola to Portland. Yet I didn't hear one complaint while I was in Canada--not a single one...

What do you ask does any of this have to do with speakers? Well nothing really. But I thought it would be a good way to use the word "nipples" in a speaker review...

Actually, there is method to my madness, in that I have been continually amazed at what comes over the Canadian/American border--particularly from a speaker company known simply as Paradigm.

Competition and Comparison
If you are interested in comparing Paradigm's Phantom speakers against other speaker systems, be sure to read our reviews of the MartinLogan Script, Scenario, and Cinema speakers and the Aperion Intiumus 5T-DB Hybrid HD 5.1 speaker system.  You can also find more information in our Bookshelf Speakers section and our Floorstanding Speaker section, as well as our Paradigm brand page.

Paradigm doesn't spend ridiculous amounts of money trying to market products that don't even really exist. But rather invests back into its product line and even more so, its customers. Take a look at their website and you'll see what I mean.

The Paradigm Phantom ensemble consists of two Legend towers for front left and right, a CC-270 center channel, a pair of ADP-170 dipole surrounds and a PDR-12 110-watt, 12-inch subwoofer.

Additional Resources

• Read more bookshelf reviews from HomeTheaterReview.com
• Discuss bookshelf speakers at HomeTheaterSpot.com
• Explore reference speakers at AudiophileReview.com

Unique Features - There really aren't any features I would classify as "unique" in the Phantom ensemble. But this doesn't keep it from being a top performer...

The components I enjoyed the most in the Paradigm ensemble were the Legend left/right towers and the ADP-170 surrounds. So I'll start here first. The ADP-170 surrounds are a compact dipole design and come packaged with mounting hardware. Each surround weighs about 12 pounds due to their rigid construction. The grilles blend seamlessly into the contour of the speakers that measure roughly 10 3/4-inches tall by 6 1/2-inches deep by 9 1/2-inches wide. Each surround features a single 3/4-inch ceramic/metal composite tweeter atop a 5 1/2-inch metellescent midrange.