[dbaxterdealcatcher]

About 6 months ago one of my Paradigm Studio 100 v1 crossover's fried. The copper coil chokes on the crossover completely melted. My speakers were just over the 5 year mark so a new crossover cost me $120. When I received the new crossover I noticed that the coil chokes were almost double in size. This might suggest a design flaw, or under design in the original crossover unit. The new crossover was still marked V.1 however it was obvious they made a lot of changes to the coils that melted on my orginal unit. Well yesterday, my other speaker's crossover failed while listening to music at reference level. The funny thing is the speakers were crossed over at the preamp at 60Hz. This time the coil that controls the mid range fried. It seems to me that the original crossover's in the first studio 100 v.1's were under designed. Over the past 5 years the coil probably overheated & cooled down until they couldn't take it any more. Has anyone else ever had a Paradigm studio crossover melt down? I'm going to call Paradigm tomorrow and hopefully they will replace the crossover for free. A design flaw In a $2000 speaker is unacceptable.


Dan

 

[kal]

"A design flaw In a $2000 speaker is unacceptable."



What sort of amp or receiver are you using to drive your 100v1's? These things are extremely power hungry and need a lot of good clean power.


99% of speaker damage is caused by pushing the AMP into clipping, not by a flaw in the speakers. Though usually you'll kill the tweeter voice coil before frying the crossover. Depends on how it's designed though ...


Example: Take these speakers (1200 lbs & worth close to 6 figures) and connect them to a $500 Sony receiver and crank it. You'll fry the speakers in seconds. Design flaw in the speakers? Nope. The amp's unable to deliver CLEAN power at high levels so it sends a heavily clipped, noise-ridden signal and the driver voice coils & crossover melt.


Kal

 

[dbaxterdealcatcher]

I'm running my Studio 100's with a Parasound 2205AT amp (225x5). The amp was not clipping everything sounded great until the crossover died. I noticed a lack of midrange then a strange smell from the speaker. I tested the rest of the speakers and the only damage was to the crossover. The Parasound should deliver plenty of clean power.


Dan

 

[kal]

Dan: Yup - Parasound makes some good beefy amps. You shouldn't have any problems getting good sound levels out of the 100's with 225 "Parasound" watts.


I'd give Paradigm a call directly - I've been pleasantly surprised with the level of survice I've gotten from them in the past.


Case in point: I have an older pair of 11se MKII's (similar to the Studio 11's or 9's) and one of the rubber woofer surrounds started to come undone roughly 9 years after I bought them. I called to see if they could direct me to a certain type of glue I should be using to fix this, and they said that they'd exchange all 4 (!) woofers for new ones if I wanted. Turns out it was a known problem with a certain batch of glue, but they could have easily said no as the warranty expired long ago. Also blew a tweeter in the first year of having them (complete abuse with a amp that was too small) and a new one was mailed out within a week with no questions asked.


If there is indeed a design flaw in the earlier 100v1's, calling Paradigm may get your brand new crossovers for both speakers no matter how old they are. I'm assuming it was a dealer that charged you $120 and not Paradigm directly?


It's unfortunate, but I've passed over my initial dealers on a lot equipment in the past - when a dealer wants to charge me for a simple change or tells me that something is not possible, I've often directly contacted the manufacturer and been well served. Mondial Designs (Acurus/Aragon line) is another company I have no problems doing repeat business with based on the customer service they've provided me in the past.


Kal