Mighty Mites: Paradigm Cinema Series Speakers By HT Staff January 28, 2002 — Any home theater or audio sales consultant will tell you that large speakers are among the biggest obstacles to closing a sale. There's a certain category of customer who wants big sound without the big boxes.

In-wall speakers have been very successful with such folks, even though they often leave something to be desired in the sonic department. Paradigm has created its Cinema series loudspeakers with just this sort of clientele in mind. These speakers, no larger than a typical shoebox, are capable of exceptional sound quality. Paradigm has leveraged its long experience with high-performance designs, extracting amazing performance from little enclosures that literally disappear. Cinema series speakers have won praise from hard-to-please home theater critics.

Cinema Series speakers can be placed either on bookshelves or mounted on dedicated stands. They are magnetically shielded for use near CRT monitors and television sets. The speakers are "acoustic suspension" designs with two drivers in the Cinema and Cinema 90 speakers, and three drivers in the Cinema C center channel speaker. All enclosures are packed with a mineral-filled polymer for a smooth, resonance-free frequency response.

Technical details: bass/midrange drivers are 90mm polypropylene cones and high-frequency drivers are 14mm (5/8") polymer domes. Crossover slopes are all 3rd-order, 18dB/octave types, with crossover points varying from 2.4kHz for the Cinema C to 3kHz for the Cinema 90. The low-frequency cutoff is rated at 80Hz for the Cinema, 75Hz for the Cinema 90, and 87Hz for the Cinema C---you will definitely need a subwoofer with the Cinema speakers. Average sensitivity is about 88dB, recommended minimum amplifier power is 15 watts. Respective dimensions are 7" H x 4.25" W x 5.5" D; 7.75" H x 4.625" W x 5.75" D; and 4.5" H x 12" W x 5.625" D. Maximum weight is 8.4lbs for a pair of the Cinema 90.