I have the twelve year old version of this same speaker. I see the cabinet is no longer a box, kind of rounded but mine still sound terrific. If you can demo them properly, you can't go wrong spending a bunch on speakers. They will outlast the whole rest of your system/theater. I'm using these as mains in my home theater, along with the Reference CC and Reference surrounds. Since my room is a little narrow I wasn't impressed with the 7.1 setup so I went 6.1 and used a less expensive Paradigm CC for the back channel. My Yamaha RX-V1900 is driving these guys just fine along with the rear-firing Paradigm sub, which was discontinued when I bought it. Too bad, I love it. One thing to look at: Paradigm makes awesome in-wall speakers if you are projecting the video or just don't want big speakers.