Recognizing the need for slimmer speaker designs that suit flat-panel televisions, Paradigm created its On-Wall Series. The on-wall speakers, which derive from the company’s Monitor Series, are designed to sound good hanging on a wall.

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.

There’s no On-Wall Series subwoofer, but I’m sure your dealer can suggest something. You might get by without a sub, though. The OW-Monitor 5 makes a pretty good go of delivering most bass sounds (e.g., car crashes, explosions, bass guitars, etc.) from 90 percent of the material I played through it. I was surprised at its ability to deliver loud, clean bass. With most music and movies, you can crank this system up quite loud.

		The reviewer found the speaker’s one-inch tweeter (above) competent, and was surprised at the loud, clean bass and uncolored midrange Paradigm coaxed from the OW-Monitor’s dual 6.5-inch woofer arrangement (far left).

But the really low stuff—Queen Amidala’s ship passing over in the opening of Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones or the deep synthesized bass that dwells underneath dance music—overwhelms the Monitor 5. It starts to distort and lose control. (And the CC-370 and the Mini Monitor aren’t big enough to help.) Which is to say, the Monitor 5 is no more or less competent in the bass than a typical speaker of its size—and probably more robust than most plasma speakers. If you want to watch Chapter 3 of Attack of the Clones over and over again, though, you’ll be needing that subwoofer.

What’s surprising about the On-Wall Series isn’t the bass, though. It’s that you so quickly forget you’re listening to speakers bolted to the wall. Whatever Paradigm did to change the sound for on-wall use, they nailed it. I noticed little coloration when listening to this system. Even with stereo music from CDs, the voices and instruments sounded shockingly natural. I did notice a slight lack of upper bass in the OW-CC-370 center speaker, which makes voices sound a tad thin, but in every movie I played in about a month’s time of using the On-Wall Series, the dialogue sounded extremely clear. And that’s a real compliment, considering that the On-Wall Series costs a fifth as much as a typical speaker that might inhabit my listening room.

On-wall speakers never produce the deep, enveloping sound that audio enthusiasts crave, but the On-Wall Series does create a reasonable sense of stereo soundstaging. When I played my best-sounding CDs through the Monitor 5s, the sound actually seemed to come from about five feet behind the wall, and it wrapped around me to create a surprising sense of ambience. Don’t get too excited—any good stand-mounted stereo speaker, even Paradigm’s bottom-of-the-line Micro, can do better. But Monitor 5’s stereo imaging is as good as I’ve heard from any on-wall speaker. And no, it’s not the first one I’ve tested—I’ve re viewed at least eight. So there.

Let’s see, that’s bass, midrange…. All that’s left is treble. Well, the On-Wall Series tweeter definitely does the trick. The treble sounds even, with no audible peaks or dips. Details that often get lost—the cabasa (shaker) in Latin recordings, the bells in "Shower the People" from James Taylor’s Live at the Beacon Theater DVD—easily find their way to my ears. I wouldn’t say the treble is lush, or sweet, or seductive, or any of those yummy words audio nuts throw around. But it’s competent and never fails to entertain.

In fact, that’s a great way to sum up the On-Wall Series. I doubt you’ll gasp when you hear them. I doubt they’ll inspire you to pull out all your old DVDs for a fresh spin. But I’m pretty sure that after a few minutes with the lights turned low and a good movie playing, you’ll completely forget you’re listening to an on-wall speaker system. I did— many times.

Photography by John Phillip