Paradigm Reference Studio 100 Floorstanding Speakers

Paradigm Reference Studio 100 Floorstanding Speakers 

DESCRIPTION

3-Way Floorstanding Speaker - Two 8" Filled Polpropylene Cone Woofers, 6.5" Mica-Polymer Cone Midrange Driver, 1" Pure-Aluminum Dome Tweeter

USER REVIEWS

Showing 31-40 of 202  
[Feb 12, 2003]
young
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

CLEAR sound. Good bass.

Wonderful speakers. I don't know what else I can add that hasn't already been said. I love them. My friends love them. I switched from a/d/s speakers with Yamaha A2070 receiver. Listening for classical/pop/movies is 30/30/40. I am still using the A2070 receiver, but I am running the main speakers with two of the outlaw m-block 200 watt monoblock amps. The brightness is going away with break-in. I expected better bass, but it still is very good. I don't know if break-in will help bass, but I'll have to see. I've been spoiled by my friend's cambridge - mark levison - B&W 801 Series 1 system. I was most worried that I would regret not getting the smaller B&W's, but I am glad that I got these speakers. Went to Ontario to buy speakers so I got a good deal. (Boy, the INS/Customs people on the US side are in very bad humour lately.) MSRP is $2400 CND for the laminate in Canada, and tax is refundable when coming back to US. I don't think you could do better for the price.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 07, 2003]
jose g
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

GREAT DETAIL AND SOUND STAGE

Weakness:

POWER HUNGRY, SPECIALY FOR BASS INFORMATION

I JUST UPGRADED FROM KLIPSCH TO THIS GREAT SPEAKERS, AND FROM AN AV RECIVER TO SEPARATES,I DID TRY THEM WITH MY HARMANKARDON 7000 RECIVER, THEY SOUNDED BETTER THAN MY KLIPSCH, MORE DETAIL AND SOUND STAGE, BUT THE BASS WAS VERY WEAK. THEN I PLUGGED MY NEW OUTLAW 770,MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE,NOW THEY SOUND A LOT BETTER , DEEPER GREATER SOUND STAGE AND GREAT DETAIL,BUT I DON'T THINK THEY CAN HANDLE 200W SPECIALY WITH MUSIC WITH A LOT OF BASS INFORMATION, BUT I JUST HAD THEM FOR 2 1/2 MONTHS SO I HOPE THEY GET BETTER.

Similar Products Used:

KLIPSCH,B&W

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 25, 2003]
mazda
AudioPhile

Strength:

Tone,speed,depth.

Weakness:

Biamp jumper system not needed.

I read the other reviews and guess I was lucky.I have had a adcom 5802 hooked up from day one and these guys sing through the whole range,I'm using a audio research LS3 preamp fed by a hafler cd as transport to adcom DA converter.I have better connects and speaker leads but nothing way out there.I will say they lean to the dry side but they bring out the best in good recordings.Civil war soundtrack you can hear the upright piano hardness and feel the inside of the church.Cowboyjunkies float in the room.They also punch on hardrock.If I was going to pick on them I'd say the soundstage doesn't extend past the speakers but has good depth.I have some good new and used shops in my town and compared the 100s to a lot of gear and you can't beat them for a dollar spent and a dollar value returned.

Similar Products Used:

JBL 4402s, M&K studio monitors,speaker clinic monitors.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 23, 2003]
1
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

can play very, very loud without distortion, clean bass,clear midrange,great dynamic, wonderful soundstage, I haven't heard much better sounding speakers at any price range!!!!!!You can buy them when you have good amp without listening -is a safe buy!!!!

Weakness:

power hungry, but that's all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! everything else is very, very, very good!!!

Great speakers - clean, deep bass, clean midrange, warm treble if you use them with good 100-200 watt amplifier. Don't use tube amps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

B&W,Paradigm Monitor, Triangle Antal, Klipsch, Cabasse, etc......

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 23, 2003]
GreatBop
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

UNBELIEVABLE VALUE. Price/ Performance ratio cannot be beat. Can go very low. Unbelievable Soundstage - both very wide, and very deep.

Weakness:

The highs can be a tad harsh because of the metellic tweeters, and the mids left me wanting when compared to the Veritaz...

When I was looking for a stereo setup for my room... My choices were between the Nautilus 803s, Energy Veritaz 2.4s, and the Paradigm Reference Studio 100s v.2. Spent 6 months going back and forth between 3 dealerships during my free time. While the Energy beats the Paradigm with the mids and highs. And the Nautilus 803s beats the Paradigm with just a tad more transparency, POUND FOR POUND, The Reference 100 gives an absolute value for money. The soundstage was UNBELIEVABLY WIDE AND DEEP. I auditioned using Fellowship Of The Ring's Soundtrack. The one where the Fellowship was running down the stairs towards the Bridge Of Kaza' Dum. The sound imaging of the Choir was nothing short of astonishing. Sounds were coming from BEYOND THE WALLS of the room. But voices were coming out from between the 2 speakers.. My jaw just dropped. Not to mention it went LOW... Unfortunately, i realized that I did not have the room for these huge towers. And had to settle for a pair of bookshelves and eventually will get a sub. Ended up with the Energy Veritaz 2.2s because of the better mids and highs (same price as the s/100s, btw) when compared against the studio 40s.

Similar Products Used:

Energy Veritaz 2.4s, Nautilus 803s..

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 22, 2003]
kebmo
AudioPhile

Strength:

midrange

Weakness:

Needs to much power

I guess if you like to play music as if you were at a rock concert like professional monitors. These could be the speakers for you!I'am more into correct timbre,soundstage,imaging,layering,macro dynamics,micro dynamics.The Studio 100 is a good value for what you get.But after that you need to sink money into a monster amp to get good results.I'am a tube man for life and these just don't match up with the rest of my system.I tried to warm up to them but they just don't cut it for my listening pleasure.Great speaker if you own a 1000 watt solid state amp! Now I know why there aren't any magazine audio reviewers using these as reference speakers !

Similar Products Used:

NHT,Equation 25,Magnepan

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
3
[Jan 22, 2003]
wengae
AudioPhile

Strength:

Value!, Dynamics, Midrange, Imaging,

Weakness:

Power Hungry, Large (which gives them many of their positive characteristics simultaneously), that is about it!

These speakers are a phenonemal value, and dollar for dollar, compare with any other speaker out there. The dynamics are profound, but you will need a serious amplifier to extract their bass potential. I originally powered them with a Sony Receiver, but it kept going into protection mode to prevent from overheating. It was not able to provide sufficient power at the volumes I prefer. Then I got a Carver 1.5T Magnetic field power amp (off of ebay for $305), and now they kick! They use all 600 watts per channel (into 4 ohms) when I play them loudly, so I'm going to get another one and use two amps simultaneously. I recommend Carver Field Power amps for these speakers because they are VERY current hungry. They image very well, and the metal tweeter is not brittle at all. They are not especially efficient so plan on getting a powerful amp, especially if you like your bass loud. The go down to about 26Hz comfortably. I am using mine with a Velodyne F1000 Servo amp (10 inch), and its mates quite well. The crossover is set at about 40 Hz, which is great since then I can play them even louder (!) with the sub taking off the difficult bass load. I drove to Canada from Albany NY to get these (they only cost $1450 in canada, plus 4% tax), and Fillion Electronics took GREAT care of me. I receommend everyone within driving distance of Canada should buy them there. Email me about it if you want. These speakers are able to reproduce the human voice quite well also, and they have a very accurate midrange which is non-fatiguing. They image as well as any other speakers of their size, but perhaps not as well as bookshelf speakers on stands. They do require a break in period of several hundred hours, but they sound great right out of the box. I recommend these speakers without reservation. For the money, they are the best value speakers made by the largest speaker company in the world which allows them to produce them at a low cost. Also, Paradigm has the advantage if being able to utilize the Canadian Anachoic Chamber sponsered by the government for free, which gives them a huge advantage over other companies. I also hear that Paradigm has good service should you blow up a driver or two playing them at deafening volumes like I like to every now and again.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio, Wilson, B&W, JMlabs,

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 19, 2003]
Manuel
Audio Enthusiast

BEST SPEAKER IN IT'S PRICE RANGE. The Studio 100 is a fine speaker that does a lot of thing well and very few wrong. I don't understand how anyone can say the bottom end on these speakers are week. Few speaakers can reproduce the same energy in the lower octaves like the 100's. Power Handling. The 100's require power and a lot of it. I recommend using power amplifier as opposed to a/v recievers. I've used Onkyo's TX-DS989, Yamaha's RX-V3300, and Marantz's SR-18, all of these recievers yeild excellent results, but when I switched over to some Anthem seperates the 100's sounded even better. I was originally using the Anthem PVA-7 with an AVM-20. this combination sounded far better than any of the recivers mentioned. It's amazing how loud they can play. I've never seen a speaker that could play as loud as the 100's. The more you turn them up the better the sound, the just refuse to become compressed. I've swithced the PVA-7 which ia a 125wx7ch amp to the much more powerfull Anthem MCA-5 225wx5ch amp and what a difference it has made. The 100's sound the best that I've heard. My results will be based on my experience with the AVM-20 and MCA-5 Sound. These speakers do some many thing right so I'm going to focus on their weak areas. These are very detailed speakers, I have over 1000 hours on my 100's and from time to time I find the tweeters can sometimes a little critical. I'd say the overall presention is almost spot on with the stage being a little layed back. The soundstage is huge but I find image placement a little vague when compared to other high end speakers. The Studio 20's and 60's actually image better than the 100's but they can't compete with the 100's soundstage size and depth. A different amplifer may corrrect the aforemention problem, I'm think of switching to a Bryston, I'll let you know the results if I do. Everthing that I mentioned is minimal compared to everthing the 100's do right. My only real complaint is that while the bottom end on the 100's is deep and powerful I find the bass a little tubby and not as tight as I prefer. I've never been found of the bass reproduction of 8 inch woofers. I find 6 inhers much tighter and accurate, that's possibly confirmed by the fact that Paradigm will be using 6's as the woffers in their new signature series. All the complaints aside what do expect for $2300cdn. At that price these speakers are a gem. Sure there are better speakers but your going to have to dish out a lot of money to get slightly better performance. Highly recommended If you are in Canada or the US and you are looking for a pair I can proably get you a deal on a new un-used pair in your choice of colour or finish. E-mail me at mfurta1002@rogers.com if you are interested.

Similar Products Used:

PSB, Monitor Audio, Kef, Boston, Klipsch, NHT, etc.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 18, 2003]
Shane
AudioPhile

Strength:

Quick, accurate bass. Very clear mids and highs. Very heavY 120lbs a speaker=VERY SOLID CONSTRUCTION! Very affordable.

Weakness:

Lacking depth and transparency when compared to speakers 4 to 5 times it's price, but is that a weakness considering only a few of those $10,000 speakers are slightly noticibly better? NO.

First, I read over a 125 reviews here to determine if the speaker was good for me. I had a Pioneer Elite VSX-49 which has 'decent' power output, i think 130wpc, but I read so many reviews on how you need 150wpc+ to get the most out of these. Anyway, I purchased the 100s and a B&K Reference 2220 which is rated at 220w x 2, bought MIT Terminator 2 Bi-Wire terminated with spades and a MIT Line Conditioner, as well as all new MIT Interconnects. WOW! At first they did sound overly bright and the bass was a bit dull, but now after about 180 hours of break in, it's a completely different stereo. I use the Pioneer Elite as an amp for the center, surrounds, and surround backs, but use it as a preamp for the 100s. From what I heard Pioneer Elite has decent crossovers, so I preamp wasn't necessary for my system. I only use the 7.1 channel for movies, NEVER music!!! That's what I spent 2g for 100s for. Also, living in PA, I drove down to Delaware to save $120.00 NO TAXES!!! Big Plus! I compared these to a friends B&W Nautilus 802s ($8k) and yes, they weren't as transparent and didn't provide AS much depth, but then again, I have a very comparable speaker for less the 1/4 the cost. Don't get me wrong, I would rather the 802s, but not worth the $6k+ price difference. If you have the money buy the 100s, I assure you they won't disappoint, unless you don't have decent sources, amps and possibly wires. But for now I'm VERY content with my 100s, virtually any kind of music will sound amazing.

Similar Products Used:

KEF, JBL, B&W, Martin Logan, Pioneer Elite, Aragon, Bose, B&K, MIT, Theta Technologies, Monster Cable, Aerial Acoustics, Klipsch, Mirage

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 12, 2002]
plamalice
AudioPhile

Strength:

Deep and defined bass, Articulated mids, Smooth and detailed highs, not harsh at any levels, Price/Value

Weakness:

none. Period.

Every now and then, you come accross a gem, a treasure, a baby... The Studio 100 are all that. Given the price, you will NEVER find anything better PERIOD. (You can't argue with that :P) They are the best value on the market. I compared them with several 5000$ and up speakers and boy do they match up. JM Labs 12000$ (CDN) speakers we're totally outperformed by the Studio 100 while B&W Nautilus sounded only a bit better. I read a couple of (user) reviews saying these speakers lacked in the bass end !!! Hmmm... What's wrong with you people... Change these gauge 26 wires to gauge 12 and get a real AMP. I currently have these connected to 2 bridged NAD (C270 Poweramp + C370 Int.amp) amplifiers and they have the best bass I've seen so far. They are absolutely stunning. Bass is deep, clear and perfectly defined. The midrange quality is astonishing and highs are smooth and accurate. (Even when driven to extreme levels, they won't become harsh). They have extremely good dynamics and and incredible soundstage (I won't even talk about the image, otherwhise you will find I'm crazy :P) These speakers we're standing next to JM Labs and B&W Nautilus in the listening room at Fillion... Hey, they too believe in these speakers :P Of course, these babies require some power. Although you can get very good dynamics and good bass using a single 120W AMP, I would strongly suggest putting 2 AMP (100~200W) bridge on these. You will get their full extended bass and a thighter sound. (NAD amps are, in my experience the best value for the price. I preferred them over MacIntosh....) Many reviewers (user and pro) said these speakers belonged into a much much higher price category. I totally agree with that. It seems these sell at a higher price in the US. If you live in the North of the US, take a trip to Canada... You will save a lot of money... PS> That 2250$ paid is CDN

Similar Products Used:

At this price, nothing is similar :P B&W , JM Labs, PSB Stratus Gold, AR, Dynaudio

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 31-40 of 202  

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