Paradigm Owners Thread - Page 892

I am incredibly envious of this. That center is huge! I'd love to own studio's someday.

Not nearly as eye-candy as the larger Sigs, but here's my living room system with S1s and C1.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the new speaker, and glad to have helped you make the decision to buy it.

Yeah, it is pretty big: ~3' wide, ~70lbs heavy. But you get used to the size pretty quickly. And it never stops sounding great!

I hope you get to have your wish.

So I have the studio 100's on order and hopefully arrives tomorrow. I'd like to complete the set when I save enough starting with the sub 12 and then the cc 690.

My question is regarding the surrounds. Paradigm websites suggest the ADP 590 ($640/ea per quick google). How would this compare to the studio 10 ($400/ea per quick google). They are both roughly the same size (although different general shape) and weight, 17 vs 18 lbs. The studio 10's look a lot better and have the matching appearance of the rest of the set. How do you aim the ADP's?? It has a strange shape. Are the left and right mirrors of each other?

Are surrounds designed differently to play a certain way, if so what?

Thanks in advance.

Eljay - Did you own anything prior to the Paradigms?

Well your question about the ADP-590 verses the studio 10 will get you a lot of different opinions. Basically the ADP-590 smears or has an enveloping sound and would be hard to localize the sound. I believe they are considered dipole speakers. They are suppose to be good if your seating is close to the surrounds or multiple rows of seating. They are suppose to be mounted on the side walls above the listener about 5-6 feet high. One negative is they don't do as well as direct radiating speakers if you listen to a lot of 5.1 music.

As far as the studio 10, they are considered direct radiating and they have more of a "in your face" feel. They need space as you don't want to be sitting right next to them or they will be in your ear. They are suppose to be better for 5.1 music since they don't smear the sound.

Now you will get many people with many opinions saying one is better than another. A lot of the time you will see people with 7.1 have the adp-590 as the side surrounds and use direct radiating as the rears. As far as me, I use the Studio 20 as my side surrounds and place mine farther back on the sides so they kind of make the same angle as my L & R. I like that feeling of being startled when you can localize the sound. You want about 2-3 feet of space behind the listening position. I mount mine on stands about 3 feet high so the tweeter is at ear level when I am seated. I only watch Blu-rays so I am of the opinion that lossless audio benefits more from direct radiating speakers than dipole/bipole because of the discrete channels. Also generally, direct radiating will have more bass.

When it comes down to it, two things will matter on which is better for you. One, your room (can your room accommodate correct positioning for direct radiating?) and two, what your ears like. Try to listen to both if you can.

Coresare,

Save your money and get at least the Studio 20's, if you can swing it.

It's quite possible that the next new thing in surround will be object-oriented audio. From Dolby and DTS object-oriented format recommendations (they're both similar products), it looks like direct radiating, timbre matched speakers all around are the best solution. Object-oriented sound is more precise in its sound effects localization and frequency range and the in-phase, out-of-phase cues will come from the mix rather than the speaker. Dipoles seem to be out, which would exclude the ADP-590's. Besides, the Studio 20's have more bass response.

If you want to go with the five array of front speakers, you'll probably want another pair of 100's up front (you can still try DTS Neo X matrix processing to tide you over). The front five speakers are, especially, supposed to be identical (the center may have to be horizontal if you don't have an acoustically transparent projection screen). The surrounds (walls and over head's) don't absolutely have to be really large speakers, but they do need to be timbre matched. There may be bass management that will allow for surround "channel" subwoofers if the surrounds can't handle the lower bass.

Just thinking ahead.
Edited by Dan Hitchman - 2/21/13 at 8:28pm

Toward coresare-

IMO room size factors in heavily in that decision. If you have a room large enough that would allow you to place the monopoles at least 6' or more away from the nearest seating position or if it's open toward the back or sides without walls for the dipoles to reflect off of they might be a better alternative. But in my 12' x 17' room I went from monopole to dipole ADP-390's with my 100's in a 5.1 setup and liked it much better. Monopoles were way too "noticeable" no matter where you sat or where I placed or pointed them. Now I run a 7.1 system with ADP-590's on the sides and the ADP-390's in the rear and like it very much. I can't wait to replace the 390's with another pair of the 590's to match everything up.

Ricoflashback said it pretty well. I find the ADP's more enveloping and transparent. I still get excellent directional sounds like bullets being fired or whizzing by. It just doesn't sound like it's comming from THAT speaker but rather that direction.

Thank you so much guys. My room is small, like 12 x 13 and the tv is above the fireplace in a corner...so the best seat to be sitting is in the opposite corner. Not ideal. Looks like I'm leaning towards the ADP's due to room constraints.

My first speakers were Paradigm 7se's. 20 years later, I bought my buddy's Paradigm Monitor 7v4s for the HT I was setting up in my newly-finished basement. A couple of years after that, I had the chance to upgrade to some gently-used Studio 60v4s. I have heard other speakers over the years, but I've never heard anything that made me think I was really missing out on something by sticking with Paradigm.

I had 590s for a while when I was running 7.1, and they did not have a switch. Nice speakers, though: They were a perfect complement to my S60v4s up front and S20v4s in back, and (IMO) their indirect-radiating configuration was perfect for side-surround duty.
Edited by eljaycanuck - 2/22/13 at 5:25am

I own PSB now but Paradigm was a contender when I bought them but the PSB had a better value in the price range I was at.

BTW, nice room, Ricoflashback. Looks like an inviting and comfortable place to settle in for some high-def entertainment!

AFAIK, PSB has a very solid reputation. Image T5s were among the speakers I demo'd a couple of years ago for my family-room, two-channel set-up: They were nice-looking, good-sounding and reasonably-priced. Which PSBs do you have?

Yup, which is why my situation wasn't ideal.
I'd put the surrounds not much higher than 6' off the ground (IMO and YMMV), but if you have to put them higher, well, that just reality taking precedence over "ideality".
There's enough room to fit at least 12ga. wire + banana plugs.
Edited by eljaycanuck - 2/22/13 at 7:48pm

When I was setting up my system, this was just a few years ago, I found a document on the Dolby website about a possible suggested rear placement. It recommended 5-6 ft off the ground if you had monopoles. I have tried this in a "short" room and it works well. When you cannot go back far enough and if the rears are only 3 ft off the ground, the person on the other side of the rear channel that is firing can barely notice it (due to the couch height). Of course, when you go the Dolby site today and click on 5.1, it suggest ear height in the rears.

I would try it 5 ft off the ground, angle them inwards. For monopoles, this should give good results. If your room is short, there is nothing you can do. Either you have it 3 ft off the ground, but I would suggest 5-6ft so the other side of the couch hear the effects as well.
Edited by bowmah - 2/22/13 at 3:25pm

I had my 590s roughly 60" off the ground and I got great sound from them at that height. My Studio 20s are on half-walls ~36" tall, and while they could be a little higher up - given that my ears are ~39-40" off the ground when seated and reclined - I'm happy with the sound quality and directionality I get from them.

As always, YMMV.

Sitting back with a beer or two enjoying some smooth jazz with my monitor 9's V6 in pure direct mode with my Yamaha 2010. Gotta love this stuff!!!!!!