with what gonk has said as far as subwofers go, i would have to say that you can get a nice b&w sub for about 100-200 bucks more than paradigm sub, but i would say that there is definatly more than a $200 improvment. when i went looking for a subwoofer, i looked at the paradigm 12 (pdr-12 i think)which cost a litle over $400, and the b&w asw-650, and the asw-600. i picked the asw-650, which was on sale for about $600, but even the asw-600 which was copnsiderably less, sounded much better than the paradigm