Quote:
Durning lunch yesturday the Paradigm/Anthem Rep paid a visit to my local Dealer with a Demo Pair of S2's finished in Birds Eye Maple.
My dealer called me, but by the time I got the message the rep had already packed up the speakers.
|
That sorta happened to me about 3 weeks ago as well. We walked into our Paradigm dealer (who had pre-warned us about the Paradigm rep's visit) and sure enough there was Jef Armstrong, the Paradigm rep for our area. He was getting ready to put the speakers away, and in fact they were already disconnected, but he remember my buddy and I from last year's visit and hooked them back up again. All I can say is WOW!!! We listened to the S2's and were blown away. It was rather convenient that the room they were set up in they also had the complete Studio v3 line up as well. First we did some A/B switching between the S2 and the Studio20's. Night and day difference! The S2's made the 20's look like crap! I couldn't believe the difference. The S2's have a similar sound, just cleaner and tigheter all around. It's like getting an upgrade to your eye-glass prescription. Then we A/B tested them with the Studio 100's, which are priced about the same as the S2's. Again the S2 came out ahead with clean and tighter highs. The 100's only managed to pull out ahead in the bass output department, but over all I think the S2 sounded better.
Also, keep in mind this was running off a Rotel amp. Jef told us that to really make the Signature series shine you really need a heavy duty amp.
Also, as for the driver differences... Yes, there are driver differences between the signature and studio series. He actually told us the details but I forgot them... sorry. I do remember that the magnets on the Signature series were much beefier then the studio series, plus they all come shielded.
As for the aesthetics, well, let's just say the new Signature series not only sound like exotic high-end speakers but they look it too. Beautiful cabinet that tapers off towards the back (which apparently also plays a factor in the tighter sound quality).
Unfortunately that's all we had time to demo. He also had some new sub which looked really neat but we never had a chance to demo it. Although the new Signature series are priced out of my (current) price bracket, I too am excited about this new line and can't wait to see the rest of the line up!
- Mike
