"a stylish and affordable launch into the world of high-performance audio"

I have a pair of Infinity Primus 360 speakers ($568/pair) and they sound amazingly good for the price. I use them in my 2.1 theater setup with a modest priced Mirage subwoofer. Do they sound as good as my $8k Thiel CS6's? Of course not. But they are an incredible value. I'm lucky that I have the means to afford high end equipment in my dedicated system but if the Infinities were all I had I could enjoy listening to music though them every day.

The price performance ratio is compressing for all stereo gear. This is as it should be. I was surprised after going to AXPONA to hear some very modest systems outperform some megabuck systems. There were also megabuck systems that sounded glorious but overall the real-world gear acquitted itself very well.

When a company like Paradigm designs a budget speaker, whether or not you like the "Paradigm sound," you know that it was thoroughly engineered and that the trade-offs were carefully considered. Kudos to them for using their design, manufacturing, and distribution experience to build a product that many people can afford.

Funny all the keyboard warriors coming into this thread to put down a speaker they would never consider.   Sad thing, or maybe not so sad, is these speakers in a somewhat properly acoustically treated room would likely image and create a sound-stage every bit as good or better than many of the expensive systems with crummy room acoustics all too common from "audiophiles".

To 8th-note's point, whether expensive or not, they are from a company that knows how to design speakers and make trade-offs. You may not like their sound, but many do, both at the low and high end, that is why they are successful.

You have got to be kidding!  Right?

On the other hands, I saw a pair of YG Acoustics Hailey 1.2 for 25K. used. That's a lot for two woofers and a tweeter.  

More expensive things are always better...that's just how it is. It's important that through posting things one notes the expensive things they use, and how sophisticated and smart one is due to that sort of thing because hey...where else are you going to get away with that? I can hear a pin drop from 372 yards away...I have a 35 car garage filled with Ferraris I had repainted with a slightly fruitier red...that's right...I could go on...