Given the questionable priorities of some plasma-speaker builders, audio cogno scenti will breathe a sigh of relief when they encounter Paradigm’s On-Wall Monitor Series. Rather than come up with a whole new design to cash in on the flat-screen trend, Paradigm morphed some of its well-regarded Monitor Series speakers into a plasma-friendly shape. The On-Wall Series is flatter than the original, and tuned differently so it sounds good mounted on a wall. (The original Monitor Series speakers are tuned to sound good sitting on a stand a couple of feet from the wall.) Otherwise, the speakers are essentially the same.

The downside is, the On-Wall Series doesn’t look as cool as extruded-aluminum plasma speakers. Paradigm doesn’t seem to have put much thought into styling them beyond swapping the Monitor Series’ black grilles for gray ones that go better with most plasmas. They’re just boxes that bolt to the wall. But they’re good-sounding boxes.

Before I get more into the sound of these speakers, how about a rundown of the line? There’s the OW-Mini Monitor, a little two-way speaker with a 6.5-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter. It’s good as a front left/right speaker or as a surround speaker. Next is the OW-CC-370, a center speaker that shares the OW-Mini’s drivers but adds a second woofer. The main act is the OW-Monitor 5, a 21-inch-high speaker designed to match the height of a typical plasma TV. The Monitor 5 packs the same 6.5-inch woof and 1-inch tweet as its brother speakers but adds an extra 6.5-inch woofer to amp up the bass. All three come with a mounting bracket that attaches the speaker to practically any wall.