Paradigm Owners Thread - Page 719

Well, so ends the honeymoon. I went to turn on my system this morning and put in a CD only to discover that the mid driver in one of my Studio 100s is blown! Terrible distortion and rattle! I never get near reference level as I don't like my music or anything else too loud. The first two hours yesterday were great, now one speaker is shot.
Calling my dealer today to see if anything can be done in a reasonable way.
They don't make speakers like they used to. I was hoping to get 20 years from these and only got 2 hours.

simple....take it back and get another one. I just picked up 2 sub 12's a couple of weeks ago and one had minor surface scratch's. phoned my dealer and went and got another one. Was out the door and home again in 45 minutes.

Man, Anubis, you've just been on a rollercoaster ride with those 100s, haven't you?

Don't fret, though. Take them back to the dealer and get a replacement. Then the honeymoon can resume (don't forget to wear protection...you don't want little Studio 10's running around any time soon, do you?)

I just picked up

Monitor 11v6
cc 390 center
DSP 3400 sub x 2
ADP 390v6 surrounds

Very very pleased!! I'm using the system in a dedicated theater room and really have only one issue with the set up... the cc390 center is huge and is very hard to incorporate into the HT. I don't want to hide my speakers as they should be shown off but I find that there is no way to blend this center speaker into the room because of its shear size. I would like to somehow set it into a stage but am not really sure if this is a good idea. Any suggestions or ideas.
As for the speakers themselves, I am blown away and I mean literally. The subs are unbelievable. The sound is fantastic. This set up has to be heard to be appreciated.

Yes, everything will be taken care of. Took the speaker in question back to the dealer and they tested it as well. Sure enough the first woofer is blown. (I call it the Egyptian woofer because it's the one that is white with the gold dust cap). It's very blown. Had I liked my music loud I may have not known it for a while. It was at low volume that it was revealed.
The dealer is ordering a new one for me and they will install it and test for me so there will be no question. They were apologizing all over the place, but it is not their fault. We determined that it either happened in shipping or it got passed over in QC. I asked how come it was fine until now and they said it is probably a QC issue and I just happened to play that one frequency that did it. (I still don't understand how come it worked fine for two hours and then gave up the ghost). They know it wasn't me because they know my listening habits and how I don't like things too loud and the fact that it's only the one speaker and was not both. (I always turn it down when I was auditioning right after they crank it up). Besides I don't think I have the horse power to hit that critical mass point anyway.
So I left my speaker with them so I would not have to load it and unload it four more times in my little Honda. I don't want it damaged or scratched.
They have it in a spot where it won't be bothered.
I also found out that they are now the only authorized dealer of Paradigm in Southern California as of last week.
So I'll have to wait a week or two more until I can enjoy them. Then I can register them as well.
They were saying how this is rare, but doesn't mean it can't happen. Things like this can happen with any company. My dealer is real nice and goes to great lengths to take care of customers. Thank goodness I bought from them or things could have been far worse.

I had an ADP 590 that had 2 bad mids. Dealer tested, replaced and tested again. No questions asked.

Stuff happens.

FYI: I'm very happy with them.

Indeed. I think one reason my dealer was apologizing all over the place was also because he knows what I went through and how I felt about laying down that kind of money on these and so he was worried about how I felt finding out I had a bad driver right out of the box.
However, like I said he is taking care of me and everything will be right as rain in a couple of weeks or less.

Is that what your dealer told you? There are 4 paradigm authorized dealers in San Diego alone.

I know of a couple of them in the South Bay area.

My dealer would replace a driver...no questions asked. I had a midrange go out on one of my Studio 60's after about 2 months. I pulled the driver and took it to the dealer. They ordered a new one for me at no cost. Done. Sometimes it takes a very narrow frequency range to "hear" the damage. In my case it was a female vocal passage and some bells that made it very obvious.

Yes, The Studio 60's do sound $700 better than the SE3.

Someone talked about the Studio 100's being the best value, but I disagree. I feel the studio 60's are the best value. I actually prefer the 60's over the 100's for their ease of amplification AND their sound quality. The 100's can squeeze some extra dB's, but I, honestly, preferred the tonal quality of the 60's to the 100's. Hence, that's why I bought the 60's.

Ok, I'll bite.
How do you set up your system to discriminate outputs between two different subwoofers? One for speaker level (down to 45 - 90hz?) and one dedicated to LFE (depends who you ask)? Lots of people say different things about SW's, "great rumble...snappy clearly defined bass riff...etc etc." Did you choose your system to get it all, for you just in two separate boxes?

Lots of questions. I don't know much.

Mike K

Man. That's a drag about the blown mid. It does happen to all companies though. I had a friend purchase a pair of PMC OB1's and within 1hr of listening one of the mids went out. This shows that sometimes things just happen. Hopefully the time will fly by.

Told ya...

Congrats on the 100's and sorry to read about the mid that went out on you. After that little time sampling of their awesomeness I know how frustrating it must be for you. Hang in there Anubis, it's worth it!

I'm looking for a center to match my Atom monitors. I was told that the CC 190 is the match. Unfortunately, without making changes(which I don't want to do) that speaker doesn't fit into the space I have. Is there a speaker comparable to the CC 190 that only goes about 6-8" deep and no more than 5 1/2" tall? There are no real constraints on width. I'm not looking for something high end obviously, just something comparable to the cc 190 that will match up will with my Atoms. Thanks.

That's off-topic for this thread, but quickly I'll comment. I currently have both subs as LFE so I should update my signature. But, in the past, I would use the CV sub to complete the frequency response of the mains to run them as Large and get a very nice bottom end. Now, I have the CV sub in the back of the room, close to the main listening area to fill in some tactile feel and my SVS up front to drive the majority of the low end duties. It's a nice balance for the room, but would be better if I had 2 of the same sub. If you are gonna run with 2 subs, I'd suggest getting 2 subs that are either identical or as close to identical as possible. Otherwise, its difficult to incorporate them with reasonable balance.

Yes. Perhaps he meant just Orange County which would be more believable.

Precisely what my dealer is doing.

Whoever said the Studio 100s were the best value? Not at $3k, nothing is best value at that amount of money.
That said though, both the Studio 60s and 100s are very nice speakers each with it's own merits, but very closely related. True, the real difference is the Db reach, but after that they are just about the same. 60s or 100s just depends on room and application really. Both are equally efficient. Both are very neutral and somewhat revealing. It's all good.
I almost went with the 60s myself and would have been pleased if I knew I could keep my sub, but knowing I may have to give up my sub for a while I decided to over compensate and go with the 100s.

It will be the longest 2 weeks for me, but it's no cost to me and at the end I will be rewarded.

I know how that goes. The tweeters in the speakers that I had before these failed, so I took them back to the dealer for repair and they had them for two weeks. Those were the longest two weeks of my life.

Yeah, it's just that the driver is coming from Paradigm Canada (HQ) and you know how slow their shipping is. If it was not coming from Canada I'd have the speaker back no later than mid week. It's just the way it goes.

I would agree the 60s are the best value considering they are 1k less and I am not sure if the performance difference is worth the 1k.

I'd be shocked if your dealer didn't have the drivers by Thursday at the latest.

Exactly. Not worth the difference at all. In fact, I couldn't notice a difference, and when running with a sub, which is what the majority of all applications will be, its better served to sink the extra cash into other gear or room treatments.

My room size is 20x20. My budget is 1000.00

My room size is 20x20.My budget is 1000.00

Those are sweet speakers. Enjoy...once you get the damaged speaker back.

I don't think even the 60 are "best value" as they still cost $2k. In my opinion, when numbers go to four digits there is not such thing as "best value".
That said, your statement is partially true. The difference is small between the 60s and the 100s with the main one being a lower db reach in the 100s. At least that's what I found after auditioning them side by side for 4 hours total. However, in certain situations one is forced to spend the extra $1K for the 100s (reluctantly).

I'd be shocked if they got it Thursday!