Paradigm 20: any good?

[Jochem]

Hi,

Two days ago I bought a pair of Paradigm Studio 20's, after three rounds of listening at my local dealers listeningroom. Compared them with two B&W 603's and Chario Premium, and some large floorstanders.
At the store, the Paradigms seemed to excell at all fronts. I tried it with a NAD amplifier - a more expensive one than I have at home (312). I bought them for 850 euro's.

Listening for two days now, with my old Sony CD-player (CDP 950), they are detailed, but rather sharp. Winds (espc. brasss) do fine, as do drums (cymbals!). Strings (ie string quartet) seem agressive in the high registers, sometimes sort of distorted at ff passages (also depending on how loud I play of course!).

So I read a lot about 'breaking-in' the Paradigms, which seems to take some while. Others (see reviews on audioreview) have the same experience as I have.. But still I'm worried of course.

I see a few possibilities:

A. 'Breaking in' solves the problem (but does breaking in also counts for tweeters?)
B. I should buy another, more mellow amplifier
C. I have bad interconnects (they're not THAT expensive.. however not worthless I think)
D. My room is too small (I listen to them at a distance of aprox 2 meters)
E. At the store, I was only thinking I that I like the 'direct approach' of these speakers..



Can somebody say something wise about this problem?




Regards,

Jochem
Utrecht, Holland

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Paradigm Studio 20 v3
NAD 312
Sony CDP-950
interconnects/cables: unknown