Paradigm Studio Serie.......

[dvjorge]

Guys,

I have been reading and participating at this forum during more than two years. Like many of you, I have been spending many hours of my life in this hooby. People, Paradigm Studio are great speakers, more than good. Nobody can say another thing. Forget about RGA's opinion. It is more than clear he has something negative with them. His opinion won't change. Even Paradigm making the best speakers in the world, RGA won't accept it.
When you want to know which is the right speakers for you, go and listen and you will know. I have to thank Paradigm. I am a happy owner of studio 100 v2 and after many years of my life listening hi-fi staff, I can say the studio serie is one of the best for the money people have to enjoy at this time. IMO
Thanks,
Jorge.

[RGA]

Umm I recommend Paradigm when they make a good speaker to my ear - I would give the V2 version of the Paradigm roughly the same I trating I gave to the current B&W 604S4 that I reviewed here. I also gave a Best Buy rating to the current model of the Paradigm Atom. The only reason I am perceived as disliking Paradigm is that this forum happens to talk about Paradigm more so than the other forums I go to. Paradigm is not the only company I will say something bad about if their product doesn't cut it for me.

You are correct that it just so happens that I don't care for the Paradigm sound generally. If you do that's fine by me - my recent reviews are geared fro people who may go out after reading endless reviews from magazines that love EVERYTHING and then after listening sort of say "Well they're OK but ____________"

I am disinterested in Home theater - many people won't go to Audio Note for that reason alone and then there is price. I have been the H/T route and IMO it's a major reason why so many speakers are so truly horrible today. I have my biases I stated them people reading them I presume take me with a healthy dose of salt. I don;t think anyone should BUY based of what I recommend.

I hope they might bother to spend 3-4 hours out of their life and compare something like the Studio 100 or the B&W 604 or 703 or speakers with similar looks from PSB Energy Veritas Totem etc directly against an AudioNote counterpart etc. Does not hurt people to audition - it does hurt to believe all the reviews in magazines that are kept afloat by advertising dollars. Reviewers are also given gifts to say good things about products wink wink nudge nudge.

The new V3 is not a bad speaker - IMO it should be $1700.00less expensive than it is.

[N. Abstentia]

Bottom line is this...the Paradigm Studio Series is a killer speaker for the price. They should honestly cost twice as much as they do.

Does that mean they are the best speaker in the world? No. Does that mean everyone will love them? No. Everyones ears are different, and everyones tastes are different.

Personally, I love the Paradigm Studios. It took me 3 years to find the perfect set of speakers for me, and it was finally the Paradigm Active Studio 40 (which should actually cost FOUR times as much as it did, thanks to the amps built in). That doesn't mean that everyone should go buy them.

I remember when doing speaker auditions, the worst sounding speakers I heard were M&K. I wanted so much to like them, but to me they sound like metal. Some people love them. I also hated B&W, which to me sound flat and lifeless. Some people love them. I also checked out Wilson speakers just for kicks because my Paradigm dealer also carried them. I was not impressed at all. Not for $20,000 worth of speakers.

It's all in what you like. I also don't feel there is such a thing as 'best speaker in the world'. That's like saying 'the best looking woman in the world'. Everyone has their opinion, and everyone else's is wrong

[Wireworm5]

Even if there are deficiantcies as RGA suggests in a certain Paradigm models wouldn't using multiple speakers mostly Paradigm in my case, make up for what might be lacking in another model? Or are they all lacking? The 100's for example have great lower bass, but I still use a sub to cover the bottom octaves. And what my Monitor 9's lack in treble are made up for by my B&W Dm601 S3.
Certainly if you can find a speaker that covers everything then that's what one should buy, value for money.

[RGA]

Wireworm

Not sure I follow. I would rather One set of high end speakers ather than a set of 100s and Monitor 9s and 601s. It makes more sense to me to be able to listen to any music on one set of speakers without the need to try and integrate a subwoofer into the mix - causing more problems than it fixes IMO.

The 100V2 sasa goodspeaker for the money - the V3 has went up $500.00 and for $2700 IMO is not only not as good as the B&W 604S3 for $700.00Cdn LESS money but there are speakers for $2700.00Cdn right now you can attain that are in my view leagues better than the 100V3. IMOthe speaker is worse and ent up a LOT over the Better V2. It's not the first time a compnay brings aout a new line and the previous model soudned better - the Matrix series versus the Nautilus is one.

It's not an attack on them - but they ain't for me.

[ToddB]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about Paradigm, and I have the Studio 20 v2 to prove it. But then again, I really like the sonic aspects that Paradigm prioritize in their designs, and I'm not as concerned with the sonic aspects that their speakers have as shortcomings.

It's not reasonable to expect that will be the case for everyone, though. While RGA certainly likes to talk about his distaste for most of Paradigm's offerings, he's no different than anyone else in that he has his own set of sonic preferences.

[BillB]

I think we all agree that speaker taste is a truly personal one and that to buy anything based on a review or someone's post on an internet forum is quite silly.

People in this hobby baffle me. We all come to places like this forum to converse with like-minded people because in the real-world we're few and far between. Many people seem to come here to push their opinions on others that aren't perhaps as aware or are new to the hobby. While that is allowed it is a disservice to those seeking guidance. Other hobbies similar to ours (small numbers overall so they seek out others on the net) are much more welcoming and supportive of new members and each other.

I don't understand why people can't stick to the topic at hand. When someone specifically asks about amplifier A working with loudspeaker B why would someone bring up loudspeaker C without even addressing the original question first? It would seem they have an agenda to push.

I recently purchased a new digital camera that is complex for my experience. I joined a photography forum asking for beginner's guidance and not once did someone mention that I shouldn't have bought that camera. I know it's hard to believe but they stuck to the topic and actually answered my question.

If someone is so passionate about speaker A or cable B then start your own thread on it...you might attract other's that are just as passionate about it!

I'm sure all of us are aware of the "flavor of the month" companies we all see on this and other audio forums. The nOrh speakers were big here, SVS over at HomeTheaterForum, Rockets at AVSForum, etc. I have no problem with someone starting a thread expressing their enthusiasm for a particular company's products. The problem arises when those people begin inserting that enthusiasm into each and every thread they feel is remotely related and at the same time putting down particular pieces that were on topic to begin with.

When I visit HTGuide's forums I don't go into the Club Integra Forum and put down that brand and proclaim Rotel to be the best...that's trolling. A post on specific brands is just an extension of the same idea. A new guy asked about Amplifier X working with Speaker Y. If you have nothing to add to why that combination would or would not work but rather are there to push Speaker Z instead you are trolling. If the original post had asked what speaker might work with Amplifier X than it's open season to recommend your heart out.

Then again maybe that's just me and my opinion. I only chime in on posts where gear I've owned or situations I've experienced are of topic.

As always...MHO

Bill

[topspeed]

People, Paradigm Studio are great speakers, more than good. Nobody can say another thing.

Watch me.

Paradigm speakers are not the best speakers in the world. They can be bettered at their respective price points, which is why I didn't buy them. Other people have auditioned and done the same. Sorry Jorge, people can say another thing.

Forget about RGA's opinion.

But believe yours? What makes you more qualified than RGA, or anyone else for that matter? Does owning them make you unfairly biased?

It is more than clear he has something negative with them. His opinion won't change. Even Paradigm making the best speakers in the world, RGA won't accept it.

Why should he change his opinion? It's his opinion. Are you so in need of his approval that you'll call him out like this? If you don't agree with him, don't read his posts.

When you want to know which is the right speakers for you, go and listen and you will know. I have to thank Paradigm. I am a happy owner of studio 100 v2 and after many years of my life listening hi-fi staff, I can say the studio serie is one of the best for the money people have to enjoy at this time.

Glad you like them...although I'm still trying to fathom the reason for your post.

[jwh917]

I am new to this forum and would just like to add some obervations for paradigm speakers.My first venture into high end speakers was a pair of Paradigm Compact monitors back in the early 90's.I kept them for 4 years and to this day i regret selling them.To my ears they were simply incredibly lifelike speakers that conveyed true emotion.Something many high end speakers do not.Since then i have had Snell Acoustic speakers which are to my ears a little more accurate(less colored) than Paradigm,but don't convey the emotion to music as well.Speaker chioce is so incredibly subjective that no reviewer can say with authority what is the best.When i purchased my last pair of Snell QBX 25's i demoed them agaisnt a pair of B&W 602's and to my ears the Snell's trounced them;even though the salesman liked the B&W's better.Snell's have a house sound as do Paradigm's as do most high end speakers. I auditioned a pair of Proac's back in the 90's and listened for about an hour and they blew my socks off...but the funny thing was to my ears my Paradigm's gave me about 95% of the Proac's performance for less than half the price of the Proac's.For me and my hard earned coin Snell and Paradigm are my favorites...other's may strongly disagree..and for sure many higher priced speakers will give you more....but just how much is arguable.And for RGA...keep up your good work. ..i enjoy your somewhat over the top opnions.

[kexodusc]

I wasn't going to enter this, but here goes...a few points:

I own the Studio 40's and 20's (v.2) along with the CC and PW-2200. They are used for Home Theater probably 80% of the time as I had (and will have in my new house) a dedicated studio for my instruments and 2-channel stereo. I do listen to some 2-channel music rather critically on the Paradigms, and multi-channel audio on occassion. I picked the 20's first (with the CC) based on their stereo performance capabilities mostly for the value offered. Music is how I tested them, not sure how else you could, really. I couldn't find a speaker that sounded better that fit my budget needs, though, until I visited Canada, they were probably my 3rd choice. I bought the 40's and eventually another pair of 20's later.

1) I'd bet my life that Paradigm probably does not make the best speakers in the world (and I wonder how you'd measure that anyway)

2) I do not know where the audiophile-elitist-wannabee's get off saying that speakers are being designed for Home Theater at the expense of Music reproduction, home theater is ruining hi-fi, yadda yadda. That's rubbish. Home Theater sounds are as diverse and probably even more diverse than Music, and if a speaker sounds good for one, it should sound good for the other. There may be characteristics that accentuate certain musical genres or special effects, but this is probably rather subtle at best. Speaker's don't have to be "full range" to sound good. And there's nothing wrong with incorporating a sub into the mix. In fact, if it wasn't for HT, I doubt there'd be as many great sounding speakers in the $1000 and below price range as there are today. I'd put a $300 speaker today against a $300 speaker of 10 years ago anyday...

3) The Studio Series is a good speaker. IMO it's a great speaker. It's certainly not the end-all be-all of the speaker world. The 20's and 40's are priced rather fairly in my opinion (especially if you get them in Canada with $200 of retail, a helluva deal I couldn't touch back in the US). Here in the US, they're competitive, but not a clear winner.

4) The Studio 100 is over priced IMO. I agree with RGA's Paradigm opinions almost never, but he's just right here. You could buy a couple of decent subs and run those in stereo with the 20's or 40's for the cost of the 100's. Not a huge fan of the Servo subs for the money either, knock off a few hundred and you'd have a real winner though. But this only my preference, I believe anyone who spends that kind of money on the Studio 100's is smart enough to determine that they've found what they're looking for.

5) The Studio series certainly shouldn't sell for 4 times as much (sorry N. Abstentia ), though they probably could while sounding better than some offerings at that price. But probably not most. I had the pleasure of listening to some Focus Audio speakers recently that are priced between 2 and 4 times the cost of the Studio v.3's at the same store. These really wowed me. Though, at 3 to 4 times the price, they don't offer 300% to 400% better frequency response, imaging, soundstage, etc, etc...diminishing returns etc, hence making the Studios (and others) an attractive buy.

6) This was a bad idea for a thread and should have been deleted by the moderators at the first mention of RGA's name in such a manner. His opinion is just as valid as anyone elses no matter how much I disagree with it. We might as well start a Denon is better than Yamaha flame war while we're at it...haven't had one in awhile.

[N. Abstentia]

5) The Studio series certainly shouldn't sell for 4 times as much (sorry N. Abstentia ), .

I didn't say the Studio series..I said the Studio ACTIVE series

The Active 40's cost the same as the Studio 100's, and they buried the 100's in every way possible...even on low end extention. You'd have to bi-amp the 100's to make them sound as good at the A40's..which of course are already bi-amped! The fact that they should have cost 4 times as much is one reason they stopped making them!

[kexodusc]

I didn't say the Studio series..I said the Studio ACTIVE series

The Active 40's cost the same as the Studio 100's, and they buried the 100's in every way possible...even on low end extention. You'd have to bi-amp the 100's to make them sound as good at the A40's..which of course are already bi-amped! The fact that they should have cost 4 times as much is one reason they stopped making them!

Hmmm, we'll have to agree to disagree then. To me the Active 40's didn't sound much better than the Studio 60's I compared them too at the time, maybe a bit though. I don't recall the Active's wowing me to the point I'd pay 5 to 10 K for them though, not even close. I decided against them in the end...I always thought they were discontinued because they weren't enough speaker for the money and the Studio's were a bit better value...goes to show how 2 pairs of ears can hear things differently.

[N. Abstentia]

Hmmm, we'll have to agree to disagree then. To me the Active 40's didn't sound much better than the Studio 60's I compared them too at the time, maybe a bit though. I don't recall the Active's wowing me to the point I'd pay 5 to 10 K for them though, not even close. I decided against them in the end...I always thought they were discontinued because they weren't enough speaker for the money and the Studio's were a bit better value...goes to show how 2 pairs of ears can hear things differently.

Yeah, saying they should sell for FOUR times what they did is probably a bit too much I guess.

Put it this way, they were $1900 which is the same as the Studio 100's (or was at the time). The Active 40's already had amps and electronic crossovers built in, so by the time I factored in the cost of 2 amps and an electronic crossover the 100's would have cost over $4000. Plus I don't like floorstanders so I would have went with the 40's anyway.

I think the reason that Paradigm quit selling them is that they were too much speaker for the money, and raising the price on them would have pretty much killed the market for them anyway. Most people in my situation would have probably just taken that $2000 and bought Studio 40's and a $600 amp and had $400 left over. But to me, the active bi-amping and no passive crossovers put the Active 40's over the top.

Funny you should mention the Studio 60's...I felt they were the worst sounding of all the Studio line! They are too big to put on stands, and too short for proper placement so I could never get them to sound right.

[BillB]

kexodusc made some really good points. In particular I agree with all but have a bone to pick with the last point. This thread seems to have been started by someone fed up and frustrated with RGA's recenty incessant pushing of Audio Note speakers.

His opinion that AN speakers are better than Paradigm's Studio Series is fine and he is entitled to that opinion. When he goes into a thread that simply asks if Rogue Audio's Model 88 amplifiers will work well with Paradigm Studio 100s pushing his new favorite AN without one mention of why the Paradigms would/wouldn't work (answering the question) with the Rogue Amps. It's kind of a misleading reply that is of no help to the person that posted the initial question:

,will a pair of rogue 88 have enough power the drive a pair of 100 v.3?

Geoffcin (moderator) had to chime in on the thread and I echo his sentiments:

He's asking about whether he's got enough power to DRIVE his speakers, and gets the old AN treatment.

This is not the first time a newbie has posted about speakers and gotten this bombardment.

Here's how we can solve this; You can open a thread on the good/bad points of AN speakers, and happily trade multipage posts with each other. Or; I will delete these off topic posts the next time I see one.

Bill

[kexodusc]

(oh man, I'm rushing to RGA's defense?)

Okay, RGA goes a bit overboard sometimes with his love for AN and his grudge against Paradigm, but there was nothing wrong what what he did in that thread. The poster asked for any advice, RGA offered some...some of us might find it a bit tired and predictable, but there was nothing terribly wrong about it.
I'd rather people feel free to offer advice as they see fit than for us to start any more censorship here. Even if that means allowing fanboys to make sales pitches. You aren't paying for the advice, and don't even have to read it. Or, you can take RGA to task on what he says. When he does post about something other than AN or Paradigm, he's usually quite informative and a good addition here.

C'mon guys, what are the real odds that a newbie, let alone a seasoned audio enthusiast, will read RGA's post, take their Paradigm's back and rush right out and buy some Audio Note's without listening to them. What's the real harm here?

We've already got no DBT rules, do we need no Audio Note rules too?

Disciplining member's is the Admin/Moderator's job not a poster's.
I've always like ar.com because compared to so many other boards, it offers (IMO) the best balance of open exchange of all ideas and philosphies without brutal and rediculous flame wars, insults, etc (though we get our share here, just not as bad).

[RGA]

Bill

As I said in that thread however the poster did not actually own the Paradigm 100 but was planning to buy them and was wondering whether his Rogue's would power them. Given that the 100 is $2700.00 and given the amplifiers power I mentioned that my speakers are available for $2500.00Cdn at soundhounds - and to give them a try someplace before he makes the move. I figure give them a try before you leap into the 100s when it appeared that the poster was not a home theater person owning Rogue. Since I had just heard the two speakers I offerred an alternaative that would give the poster far more options even if you take sound out of the picture - there is no question the Rogue would drive the J. The J has more bass depth and microdynamics than the 100 and if he chooses to down the road he has the option to buy lower powered Single ended tube amps.

Questions like will a 70 watt amp drive X speaker the answer is always yes it will drive them - how well it will drive them no one here who does not have or sell that combination will truly know.

I did not say go buy Audio Note - The last thing I want is for anyone to buy without listening first. I'm luckier than some because I get to hear it against eachother in the same room with the same equipment - many people do not or only hear carbon copy designs from competitors - and if they're both IMO doing it wrong then you're just choosing the best of a bad bunch.

I also am fully aware that companies like nOhr have been flavour of the months. The difference is that Audio Note has been around for over 20 years(another 10 under Audio Note Japan now called Kondo) and many products go back 60+ years so it is not some internet only seller out of Taiwan. They are relatively new to me to be frank because they have limited dealers(and BTW that is by choice and the fact that most dealers don't have deep enough pockets to carry Audio Note). UHF has been reviewing for 20+ years and finally just reviewed an AN entry level CD player/DAC combo in issue 69. The reason was because Audio Note was selling systems that magazines could not afford with amplifiers in excess of $90kUS.

And besides if you don;t want to or can;t hear Audio Note - then heaven at least listen to PMC and Dynaudio before you take the Paradigms - they do the same kind of sound much better and don't cost much if any more. Just my opinion.

[Woochifer]

Guys,

I have been reading and participating at this forum during more than two years. Like many of you, I have been spending many hours of my life in this hooby. People, Paradigm Studio are great speakers, more than good. Nobody can say another thing. Forget about RGA's opinion. It is more than clear he has something negative with them. His opinion won't change. Even Paradigm making the best speakers in the world, RGA won't accept it.
When you want to know which is the right speakers for you, go and listen and you will know. I have to thank Paradigm. I am a happy owner of studio 100 v2 and after many years of my life listening hi-fi staff, I can say the studio serie is one of the best for the money people have to enjoy at this time. IMO
Thanks,
Jorge.

As others have pointed out, speakers are a VERY subjective area here since every speaker out there makes significant compromises of some kind. The speakers that we individually prefer are the ones whose compromises we can live with. IMO, RGA frequently goes overboard with his oft-stated writings on various speaker models, and more often than not, I disagree with him. But, does that make him wrong? Of course not.

Conversely, I own a set of Paradigm Studio series speakers. Are they the best speakers in their price range? They are at least the speakers in my price range that best fit my preferences and uses, so for ME they are the best ones. Whether or not they are the best for anybody else is an entirely different question. It's fine to like your speakers, I know that I do, but with so much variation between speakers out there, there are bound to be plenty of people out there that don't like Paradigm at all.