The Paradigm Studio 40/v.2 is a great speaker for the money.Great mid-range and great bass. These speakers are great for home theather.
I've had these speskers for about 3 months now and could not be any happier.
Go and check these speakers out. I think you will agree that the studio 40's lack nothing.

You will get the must speaker for the money with any Paradigm product.The studio 40 is one if not the best spesker in it's price range.
Great mid. great bass. Home theather at is best. Bi-wire these for the best sound. Give them about 40 hours to burn in.

I just got done doing a direct A/B comparison with the Paradigm Studio 40's and the Monitor Audio Silver 5's. Overall I'm going to buy the 40's. First, I had a perfect A/B setup. I had two Denon AVR5700's (my friend's and mine) to be able to switch between the two sets of speakers at the touch of a button.

In comparison, the 40's had a much more spacious sound than the silver 5's that, depending on the type of music, sounded a little better or a little worse. Where it might have been a little worse was during mostly male vocals. The voice seemed much more up front with the Silver 5's and further back with the Paradigms. I guess this would just be more of a matter of preference, though.

The Silver 5's have better bass extension, but they are a floor standing speaker. Also, the Silver 5's I auditioned were completely broken in, where the 40's only had a few hours on them - maybe this would account for some missing bass. Either way, I turned the bass up a couple notches on the 40's in order to even them out for the comparison. This is really not a big deal for me as I will have a subwoofer to take care of the bass.

Where they were similar was in the amount of musical detail they both displayed - very nice.

As far as looks, the Silver 5's win, hands down. The finish on them looks very high quality. They look even more impressive with the grills off. The Paradigms, in comparison, seem just average. The plastic surrounding the speakers actually seem a little cheap.

Even so, the overall spaciousness with at least the same amount of detailed sound won me over. It's just a matter of where I can get the best deal... I can't wait to own these along with the Studio 20's for the rear, the Studio CC center, and a Velodyne sub!

Clarity, Soundstage, Range for size of speaker

at high volume, can be a little bright. Also very sensitive to equipment.

I waited 8 months before writing this review, so I think I have a fair idea of what these speakers can do.
These speakers have a refined sound that is full and clear. They can sound a little hot at high volume...but not nearly as much as B&W speakers. The speakers have a surprising amount of bass punch for their size. What I have found after switching through several pieces of equipment, is that these speakers unusually highly sensitive to their input. I started with a Nakamichi receiver that sounded like it had no bottom end, so I purchased a subwoofer to compensate. I then switched out some other equipment and found that the Nakamichi was the problem. I have now settled on an Arcam A85, and that has brought out a bottom end strength that I had not expected from these speakers. Now I barely need the subwoofer. These speakers are very capable when paired with the right equipment. I will give it four stars for perfomance because I have heard speakers such as Revel before. I will give it five stars for value since Revel can't compete at this price point. My price quoted is for wood veneer panelling. My equipment is Arcam A85 and CD72 with Transparent cables.

Similar Products Used:

too many to list

Price, accuracy, size, quality, looks, versatility. Pretty much everything with a speaker in this price range.

Sharp sound when new..but hey breaking them in part of the fun!!

I just picked these up yesterday!! I have been waiting for so long b/c I knew what these speakers entail. They are pure gold! I opened them up and setting them up took about an hour or so as the cable setup is a bit tricky on my receiver.

OK, the burn-in period is definately there, but I knew this and was prepared. A friend of mine has a pair of the 20's and they were even sharper and more brittle sounding, but after several weeks, they turned into some of the best bookshevles in their price range.

I am not exactly sure what everyone means about no bass. These speakers have excellent mid-range and low separation. They are supremely accurate. I got mine in the light cherry finish. Very nice touch.

All in all (pre break-in period) awesome speaker. Sounds awesome, very aesthetically pleasing, and the price is SOOOO right.

I highly suggest these speakers.

My setup:

Sony 777ES receiver
Sony 530 DVD player
Nakamichi 5-disc (awaiting my Sony 80ES changer)
Monster POwer Cneter 3500
Velodyne FSR-12 servo-sub
Paradigm Ref Studio 40's
most equipment is connected via monster stuff. The speaks are connected via Liberty's bulk ULTRA CAP THX speaker cable. Which I might add is a steal at $.97 a foot and easily matches against many much more expensive cables.

My upgrades within the next 6 months are:

Sony 80ES 5-disc (My opinion best 5-disc on the market in the sub 1000 range)

MSB Link DAC III with upsampling and powerbase.

I am going to use Tributary silver audio interconnects between the DAC and 80ES. E-mail me with any questions.

Similar Products Used:

Cerwin Vega, Infinity OVTR-1, B&W, DCM, ProAc

Balanced sound over the entire sound spectrum except for low bass, build quality, forgiving

Again low bass however I'm not much of a "bottom dweller"

I am upgrading my two channel system and my first priority was new speakers. I listened to alot of good speakers up to the $1500 range. What impressed me about the the studio 40 v2, was how smooth and sweet sounding they were even with modest equipment and inter-connects. I listen to a wide range of music and it seemed the 40's just seemed to be the most consistent,in terms of overall tonal balance.
I have played drums most of my life, I'm 40, and naturally I want a speaker that reproduces percussion instruments dynamically. One of my favorite test cd's is "Burning for Buddy" a compilation cd on Atlantic records produced by Neil Peart of Rush. The last track on the cd is "pick up the pieces" an old disco tune originally done by The Average White Band. This song has alot of percussion, horns, piano ect. and puts speakers through a workout. The 40's tore this song up! Mid range and highs were just phenominal! Jon Werkings piano solos jump out at you as well as the various pecussion work by Kenny Arnoff, Neil Peart, and Steve Ferrone (former AWB and Duran Duran drummer). The other speakers just did'nt do this track justice, at least not as well as the 40's. This may sound narrow but I did bring about a dozen other cd's to listen to as well. The only other speaker I listened to that came close to the sound of the 40's was the PSB stratus silver i's. They had better bass response but I felt the highs and mids were more natural on the 40's. I will eventually get a good servo sub for the low end. I am extremely happy with these speakers and highly recommend them!

Other equipment:
Audio Source amp 3
Creek obh-12 pre-amp
NAD c-541 cd player
UltrLink inter-connects and speaker cable
Premier j-50 speaker stands
Paradigm reference studio 40 v2 speakers

Similar Products Used:

listened to Paradigm studio 20's, PSB stratus silver i's, NHT 1.5 and 2.5's, Klipsch rf-3's, and others

Midrange and overall balance, detail, powerhandling, one of the best in this price range

Slight peak around 5-6khz, need a sub for rock, HT

I've lived with these for about a year and still haven't heard a better all-around standmounter under $2k. The frequency balance from about 80hz on up is excellent with the only drawbacks being a very slight dip in the upper bass and a bit of a bump in the lower treble. This can actually make female voices sound clearer but can hurt some male vocals and some poorly eq'ed recordings can sound a bit harsh. A similar overall affect as the Dyn 1.3's with better dynamics but a slightly less refined sounding tweeter. Keep in mind that these are very, very slight deviations, nitpicking really, especially for an $800USD speaker.
On the plus side, they sound good at lower volumes and really open up at higher volumes with excellent dynamic contrasts across the board. Acoustic guitar and vocals sound great and all types of rock have great overall dynamics from the midbass on up without breaking up or adding any harshness in the mids and highs (add a sub - I run the 40's fullrange and cross the sub around 60-70hz). On some rock or metal cd's this isn't always a good thing, but I'm hearing loads more detail in the midrange and clearer highs than the SDA's (no slouches themselves). I don't listen to orchestral music but complex jazz comes across very well with no loss of detail except for a slight recession in the upper bass range. I have these in a fairly large room (25x18) so this may not be an issue in a smaller room.
Would I buy these again ? Absolutely. I'd suggest focusing on components and cables that are cleansounding to get the most out of the mids and highs on the 40's and use a sub for the bass and sub-bass. I don't see myself justifying an upgrade unless I decide to part with $3k+.
System components:
SR7000 as a pre-pro
Studio 40's and CC450 in front, RS bipoles in the back
MF A3cr for L/R, Adcom 545 passive biamping the CC, SR7000 powering the rears
Magnavox CDP650
Toshiba DVD
CAT-5 DIY braided cables biwiring the front 3
HSU 1220 sub
PS. The CAT-5's biwired into the 40's are a great match, much cleaner than some Monster biwire cable I borrowed from the dealer. Also, I just got the MF and it is incredibly clear and opened up the 40's quite a bit more as compared to the SR7000 or Adcom. The Brystons are also a good match (I tried the 3bst and 9bst) with slightly better bass but aren't quite as clear up top as the MF.

Similar Products Used:

Polk SDA-2's, Infinity RS-something 2-ways, AR-1's from mid 70's

not too bright or warm. Perfect in a sense that music can be enjoyed.

must be used with selected components to sound best.

From the first day of setting it up it sounded bright. The lows were soft instead of tight and it didnt had the imaging I got when compare to when I heard it in the dealer. But After a week it became the best speaker I've heard in that price range. Not even the sound of the big Studio 100 could match them, only in low freq. But be careful cause when I had my receiver a Sony 915, the speakers didnt do much. All I heard was garbage from them. Then I finally decided to put the money in a new amp. An ATI 2505 paired with a Creek OBH-14 passive/pre. I didnt have suficient money to get a better pre at that time. But with only that the difference was night and day. Now I can hear all the things that where missing on EVERY cd i own. Its been a while since I dont do any upgrade to my system and I was looking around some dealers and for the first time gave a listen to tube amps. Now let me tell you this. If your using your Studio 40 with a SS amp for movies thats all right but if you listen to music mostly better get an tube. After I heard what a tube amp can do musically I couldnt resist the temptation to buy one. Now the search beging to better my 40's sound. Ohh Im considering either a Cary V12 or a Atma-sphere M-60.

Components used:
ATI 2505 amp
Creek OBH-14 dac/pre
Panasonic A110 transport "for now"
Nordost flatwire speaker wires
Vampire Interconnects
Monster Power HTS2000

Similar Products Used:

Monitor 7, Studio 60 v2, studio 80 v2,B&W 602.

Clean high quality fidelity

missing bass extension

After traveling around to the various
hi-fi stores in my area and listening
to many many speakers over several
months I have concluded that in the
catagory of speakers that either go
on a bookshelf or a stand you must
realize that their are handicaps
on the speakers ability to project full range of sound due to the size of the speaker box. The bottom line is that
no matter what you buy a floor standing
speaker will always sound fuller and
offer better range of bass extension.
The Studio 40 does have good sound for
its size however if you what full sound
buy a floor standing model like the Studio 60.
Anyone who is looking for a good sounding floor standing speaker for
less might also look to Polk Audio RT600. They can be had for under $450.00. POlk is porting this speaker
through the bottom in a way which gives
the listener an attractive floor standing speaker with great sound for a two way speaker. See the user reviews. The Studio 40's get a 4 for sound compared to all speakers. Rating it only against other speakers of its size It gets a five for sound for speakers
in its class. Again we want to emphasize
the preference for floor standing if you
want full range sound.

Similar Products Used:

POLK RT55, B&W 602

I've had these speakers for about a mounth now and could not be any happier.Bass and mid range is tight. Great for home theather. Well worth the money.
Go and check these speakers out.