Paradigm Studio 20 and Monitor 7 (1 Viewer)

[Ronneil Camara]

hey guys,

which is a higher end, studio 20 or monitor 7? In perfomance though, which is better performing?

Thanks.

neil

 

[WayneO]

One being a tower and the other being a bookshelf, they will probably be most different in low end output. Now many people will say the Studio is better, buy that, but the 7's are a great speaker for the price. And as the saying goes, whatever sounds better to your ears and wallet. As noted in a similar post, I have Monitor 11's and 7's and didn't audition Studio's at the time of my purchase because towers, which is what I wanted, were out of my price range. I have listened to them since then and really like the sound. If I can come up with money, I would upgrade to the Studio's, but only because I get full credit for my old system. Otherwise I'd start the speaker auditioning process all over at the Studio's price point. IMO I lean to towers for the fuller sound that they generally have over bookshelfs. Good luck choosing.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

For HT the Monitor 7s are a great speaker. But for music, the Studio 20s have a much more natural, laid back, and more detailed sound. But the 20s being a small bookshelf will need a sub. The 7s can run by themselves. So if you have/plan to have a sub, I would start with the Studios. Eventually you could get the 60s and move the 20s to the rear.

 

[Evan M.]

I auditioned those two speakers quite a bit with a buddy (who it was for). They are both great speakers but very different. The 7's will of course have the depth but it does not touch the 20's when it comes to detail. The monitor series in my opinion loses a lot of the detail in music while the studio really picks up those nice hi-hat hits very well. vocals are much cleaner as well. You will of course need a good quality sub to balance out the low end. For HT they are both very good. I never audition with HT until the end though because you will tell the difference much easier with music (unless it is a center of course). I personaly would go for the 20's because the matching center ,cc470, is LEAPS an BOUNDS better then the cc370 (matching monitor center). Vocals were so clear and realistic on the 470 while the 370 just sounded muffled and "fake". Best of luck on your decision........BTW....my friend went with the studio 20's and cc470 along with the pw2200. It all sounds great.

 

[Ronneil Camara]

Here is what I am planning in the future. Right now, I have atoms only. Next thing I am going to buy is ADP-170 for the surrounds. Then once I get more coiniage, I will return my Atoms to the dealer then buy Studio 20s and cc-470. Then yes, I am planning to have a sub and I have decided to buy an SVS 20-39 PCi. What do you think about my 5 to 7 months plan? Btw, I am using Yamaha RXV-1400.

Thanks guys.

Neil

 

[John Garcia]

To me, the 20s still sound a bit muffled in the midrange, but they are still better than the 7s in terms of detail.

The 470 is definitely a better speaker, but IMO, there are NOT LEAPS and BOUNDS of difference between the 470 and 370, just more detail - the same difference between 40s and Monitor 5s. A properly placed and setup 370 sounded great in my setup...though I still ended up buying new speakers.

I recently listened to the Signatures and I'd say there is the same difference between the Signatures compared to the Studios as there is between the Studios and the Monitor series.

 

[Evan M.]

So moral of story......listen to all of them and see what you like best. While I think the 470 is "leaps and bounds" better then the 370 others do not. I actually thought the 270 sounded better then the 370. So it really is up to your ears. You may be suprised at what you prefer. It may even be a lower model.

 

[cabreau]

Sorry John, my ears disagree with you.

I ended up going with the Studio 20's instead of Monitor 7's partially because there was, in my opinion, definitely a night and day difference between the CC-470 and the CC-370. The 470 blows it away. I listened to a 170, 370, and 470. When I THOUGHT that my only options were between the 170 and 370, I opted to stick with my 170 because it sounded clearer and less muffled than the 370. Then I heard the 470 and as Strongbad would say, "What the crap!" The 470's were far superior. I decided to get the cheapest Studio series for fronts so that I could match it to the 470. (They didn't have 570's, I probably would have liked those even more, LOL).

The only thing that was different is that we were listening to the 470's using an HK AVR-7200, while we were listening to the Monitors and Performance series through an HK AVR-230 not sure if that would make a huge difference. But the CC-470 sounds spectacular through my AVR-330 right now.

I'd keep the Atoms and use those for surrounds (unless you are literally a foot away from your surrounds).

Right now my setup is two Studio 20's, a CC-470, and 4 Atoms for surround, with a PW-2200 sub, all powered by a Harman Kardon AVR-330. And it sounds GREAT (to me).

 

[Ronneil Camara]

Cabreau,

Just a question for you. Why did you go for Atoms for surrounds instead of the ADP-170 which is really meant for surrounds?

Thanks.

Neil

 

[John Garcia]

I heard the 470 the week it came in, with almost zero hours on it, no calibration, with a Marantz 9300. It sounded about the same as the Studio CC to me. "Leaps and bounds" is excessive to my ears, but I am certainly not saying it isn't a better speaker.

No problem, I don't expect everyone to hear the same thing. I had the v3 40s for a week and a half, and did not end up buying them. I confirmed why I did not buy them when I used the v3 20s as a baseline for auditioning this weekend - they just aren't what I am looking for. The interesting thing is, a friend, who is admittedly no audiophile, had the same conclusion when listening to my setup without me eliciting a comparison from him. He auditioned various Studios, then we listened to my gear for about 1hr, and his comment was that my speakers sounded noticably better than the Studios. My speakers cost less too....

 

[Marty M]

This is what it all boils down to. The best speakers are the one that sound best to you.

 

[Ed_A]

John, I missed what your setup was...? Just curious.

Ed

 

[ArnaudP]

I have 20v3 with cc470 and a sub, and It sounds great compared to my Tannoy setup.

 

[John Garcia]

Sorry, here are my speakers - 3 across the front in Cherry: A/V-2. Here's a pic of my mains

Not knocking the Studios either, because I have been Paradigm fan for almost 10yrs.

 

[Evan M.]

This is the full quote that I said John:
"I actually thought the 270 sounded better than the 370. So it is really up to your ears. You may be suprised at what you prefer. It may even be a lower model."

Your responce: "That really doesn't make your arguement any more convincing"

What arguement are you referring to? If you read the whole post you can see that all I am saying is that he should try everything because he may even like a "lower" model in the product line. I am not argueing against the 370 being a good speaker. It is a good speaker, I was just not as impressed with it as others that I have heard in the paradigm line. I thought there would be more of a difference between the 170 and the 370 but there was not. I said in my last post I compared it to a 270, my bad, it was actually a 170. I noticed a huge difference between the 370 and 470 which seemed odd to me. It may have been the setup and the room environment it is hard to really guage what a speaker will really sound like in your home by listening to it at a shop. I apologize if you think I was bashing the speaker, hopefully you can now see that was not my intention.

 

[John Garcia]

I believe we had the 370-270-170 discussion before, and I still respectfully, but completely disagree that there is a small difference between the 170 and 370. I have owned all 3, and there is no question in my mind that the 370 is the better of the 3. Obviously, it will not compete effectively with the 470, but your comment that there is such a dramatic difference is a bit overzealous to me, and that is all I am getting at. "Argue" was, perhaps a poor choice of wording, since I don't think there is an argument here. I have always liked, and recommended the Studios, even in the last two weeks I have recommended Paradigms to three friends. At the same time, I already knew that they would not be part of my upgrade path when that time came. I gave them a shot, and I could be happy with a full compliment of Studios, but I feel I spent enough time listening to enough speakers to be more than satisfied with the choice I made.

I agree, he should listen to everything and form his own opinion.

 

[cabreau]

Ronneil,
My friend convinced me to leave the Atoms as surrounds. He said that my money would be better invested in the fronts, center, and sub. He was right. Once I heard the CC-470, I knew that I had to have it...and that I had to match the fronts with it. So intead of getting ADPs, I kept 4 Atoms to use in my 7.1 surround (my first system was 4 Atoms and a PDR-10, so I just kept the Atoms) and took the money I saved to get some Studio 20's to match the CC-470. Granted, the ultimate setup would have been Studio 100's, probably with a CC-570, but that is in the future sometime...unless I can afford the ML's.

 

[Evan M.]

John, you bring up some good points. I guess my problem is that paradigm has 3 different centers in the performance series 70, 170, 270......2 in the studio line 470, 570 but only 1 in the monitor, the 370. Although it matches well with the "lower" models of the monitor line, I think it is a weak point when you get up to the 7's and above. Does the 370 sound better than the 270...maybe..at least it should. Does it sound like it is worth the extra money spent?.....I just don't think so. It just seems that the differece between the performance line to the monitor line is not as great as between the monitor and studio. Again...if I had it at home and calibrated it myself in my room I will probably hear more of a difference. At any rate I just think paradigm should have another center to offer in the monitor line.....maybe a three-way like the 570. I do think though that paradigm is a fantastic speaker company and give A LOT of bang for the buck.

 

[John Garcia]

Actually, I've always wondered why Paradigm only had the one center for the Monitor line too, but I suppose their thinking is that if you are looking for somehting better than that, you should be going with the Studios.

To me, the 370 can be driven much harder than the 170 without any difficulty (just like Minis vs Titans) and the tweeters are a noticable step up when going from the 3/4" composite to 1' titanium. At reference levels, with a lot of power, the Performance series starts to struggle, while the Monitors can take a bit more, and I've never really heard Studios pushed to their limits. The Titans and Atoms both started to ring when pushed very hard.

The difference between the Performance and Monitor line is not quite as big as the difference between the Monitors and the Studios, because those differences are far more subtle, but it is there for certain - and many people say they cannot hear a difference at all (when I first heard the Minis vs Titans I thought the same thing). I've owned Atoms, Titans, Minis, 5s 170, 270, 370 over the past 5-6 years, and after quite a bit of back to back comparisons, I felt the Monitors were easily better speakers, just as the Studios are better, but different than the Monitors. I actually prefer the tweeters from the Monitor line to the Studios because with bright material, the Studios can be a bit too "in your face" for my taste, even with high end electronics, though tube amps may tame that some.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

I just want to make a point that Paradigm speakers take a long time to break in. I went from a 370 to a Studio-CC (v.2) when I moved my 20's into my HT and at first they sounded very similar. It has now been 2 months and the Studio-CC is improving every day. I am starting to really hear the differences as the Studio-CC breaks in. So make sure when you are auditioning to take into consideration if the demos have been broken in. If not insist on a in home 30-60 day trial where you can break it in and really decide for yourself.