Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
I never had a chance to test the S8's but I did take a listent to the S2's and S4's.
Apparently these things need an extreme amount of break-in time. My dealer had just taken out another set of S4's because he sold the floor demo's and I got to listen to two pairs, one broken-in, one not, for the first time in my life at the same place, same time.
If anyone ever doubted the significance of speaker break-in, I suggest they try this.
The S4's out of the box sounded okay, but I was really expecting more for the price.
The S4 floor demo's were spectacular. It was hard to believe these were the same speaker.
The dealer told me the first set took about 20-25 hours of playing more to open up than any speaker he's ever heard. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but if it's true, it might be really tough for interested customers to accurately test these.
Hmmm, then that might explain my less than stellar audition with the S2 a few weeks ago. I know that those demo units had been out of the box less than a week, and that particular dealer does not leave its speakers plugged in and playing all day. I've always been a skeptic about the need for extended break-in, but I know that brand new speakers do sound different than after they've had a lot of playing time. I'll have to head back to my local dealer and give them a retry when I try out the S4s.


Paradigm Signature S2 and Studio 20 v.3 first impressions! (long)