I'm still very fond of my Paradigms. Haven't heard the current generation (they've revamped the line twice since I got mine). As with any speaker, give them a listen if you can before you commit.

If Outlaw does come out with a surround speaker, I wonder if will be a bipole/dipole, or something completely different. I would hope that Outlaw would NOT produce a 'me too' product. One design that caught my interest was this one: http://www.gr-research.com/kits/av1rs.shtm.
(probably a patent on this though...)

Opps, that link won't work directly since GR-Research has something screwy with their web site. Go to their home page and navigate to kits, and then av1rs.

It was just the period at the end of your link (try this to get there directly). M&K did something similar with an up-firing surround. At first glance, they look best suited for the case of systems with no space behind the listening positions to allow locating rear surrounds - without digging deeper into them, I'm not sure that I'd want to use them for side surrounds.

Since my family room has seating up against the back wall, the up-firing design probably would work well for me. In a 5.1 setup, I'd put them on the back wall about 2' from the corners of the room.

I don't really have a good spot to put side surround speakers due to lack of wall space (fireplace and brick finish wall on one side, windows on the other side). Also the centerline of the room has to be at the 1/3 position into the room due to the location of the entry door near the only wall the tv can be located on.

I have read postings from people using the up-firing design on side walls (7.1 setup with 4 such speakers) and they spoke well of them. Guess it all depends on your room layout.

BTW I've taken to looking at the speaker setups at various local movie theaters and there are many different designs used here for surrounds. Some up-firing mounted low down, some down-firing mounted near ceiling level. I wonder what the THX spec's call for?

Have you looked at the Magneplanar wall-mounted surround speakers (www.Magnepan.com)? A pair of MMG-W's are $300, direct from Magnepan, with a 60-day return policy. You risk only freight and they're not heavy.
Whether they're THX-compatible I neither know nor care since I wouldn't be listening in a theater.

I had problems with my sidewall placements, as well (fireplace on one side and french doors on the other) and ended up using small bookshelves (Axiom M3's) and some adjustable wall brackets (Axiom's FMB). The left surround ended up being a bit creative, as I mounted to the side of the cabinet instead of the back as originally intended. You can see the left surround here and the right surround here (on the left side of the picture).

Well I could put one side surround on the mantle, and the other on the wall between the windows, but it would have to be almost touching the ceiling to be above a hanging picture. One surround would then be closer to the room centerline than the other. The surround on the far wall would also have to be an MTM or mounted sideways since there wouldn't be enough room between the picture and the ceiling. Running wires though my ceiling isn't easy since the room is under a flat roof with NO crawl space. It could take a day and 1000 tries to get a wire through with a snake.

It sounds like you've got an even more challenging a space than I do - at least I have an attic to run wire through (even if it does start to taper away to nothing around the midline of the room) and a little wall to work with.

Part of my problem is also WAF (wife approval factor) in such matters as not being able to drill speaker mounting holes in the wall with the fireplace (I'd ruin the fake brick surface) or relocating hanging pictures (though I might get away with lowering them by an inch or two).