Polk Audio Vs Paradigm (1 Viewer)

[greggor]

My apologies for not clarifying which version I am using. All my speakers are V2 with no plans on upgrading to the V3's or anything else for that matter. As for the "brightness" or "harshness" of the studios, I will admit that they could be percieved as sounding this way with certain amplification, however with the right amplification they sound just the opposite and are very smooth through out the entire frequency range. If you can't power these speakers the way they were intended to be driven than it is my recommendation that a lower priced speaker would be a better value.

 

[Joey_V]

i heard it powered by a rotel amp and yet.... it still sounded harsh at certain volumes... i dont know.. :frowning:

 

[greggor]

Joey I noticed that you own the Axioms. I found the Axioms to be far brighter than the Paradigms with a much smaller sound stage. I guess we all hear things differently which is why its important to audition everything in your price range before purchasing. Just goes to show the subjectivity of how different speakers sound to different people.

 

[John Garcia]

I auditioned the 20s and 40s with a Marantz 9300, and the 40s at home with my 8300. Stereo, full range in both cases, and felt they became harsh (v3s) on certain material. I compared 20s again, with one particular passage on Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue that has a barrage of high hats, on an Adcom CD73 and an A80 integrated with active interconnects and, while reduced, I found more or less the same thing. I listened to the 20s to have a baseline to compare the S2s to, and the S2s did not exhibit the same behavior in the exact same setup (but they also cost 2x the price). I still love the Studios, but they were not what I was looking for. I found the v3s to be a slight improvement over the v2s, but not a dramatic difference.

I also found the Axioms to be brighter than the Paradigms, but their midrange seems less colored than the Studios (less complicated x-over), though they give up depth and stage to the Studios, as greggor notes.

 

[mackie]

It's funny how different people like different things. I chose studio 40s because I liked the brightness of the speakers. Of course, I had a set of klipsch speakers before I bought the 40s, so the ones I have now seem much warmer than the Klipsch

 

[Joey_V]

not detracting from the beauty and the audio grace the paradigm sigs and studios have... i found that that paradigms always had the highs controlled - albeit in certain material, i found them "slightly" bright. i agree that the m22s suffer from a smaller soundstage with less depth, i wouldnt say the midrange is less colored with the paradigms - but i felt that the paradigms had more bass, thus, the midrange might have seemed a little colored.

 

[Bob*S]

I was wasting some time today at a local audio store and gave another listen to the Monitor Audio Silver 2s. When I set them to small and adjusted the sub volume they really sounded great even though they were within six inches of the rear wall. Yeah, they was a noticeable hump in the upper bass but I was surprised by what I heard: I was honestly hearing some detail that I had never noticed before (or the heat had me hallucinating ).

I'm going back to give them a listen on stands....hopefully back-to-back with another audition of the Studio 20s.

Bob

 

[Joey_V]

ahh... the beauty of auditioning speakers.

 

[Will-Layfield]

I know this is really the price range you guys are talking about but how do you guys feel about paradigm performance series vs. polk's rti line up?