parad stud 40's worth 500.00 differrence over jbl s38? (1 Viewer)

[Todd smith]

I am probably going to a/b these, but just wanted some opinions if anyone has heard both. Do you think there is a $500.00 difference in sound? Maybe an odd comparison, but these are the two I am looking at.

 

[Jedd]

I did. I do.

But it's IMHO (in my hearing opinion), you SHOULD get your own.

 

[John Garcia]

Two different sounds. I would certainly choose the Studio 20 over the S38, because I personally like the way Paradigm sounds better.

What you asked though, was if there was $500 worth of difference? I think only you can make that call. If you want my opinion, the difference is probably not worth $500, but the difference is there, IMO.

Listen to many speakers, not just these two, because you will better form an opinion of what you are listening for.

 

[Saurav]

I would take my GR Research Paradox 1 over the JBL S38 any day, and some people who have heard the Paradigm 20 and 40 have preferred the GR Research too. Take a look at this thread a little further down this page:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=65415
Of course, part of this is just pride in a pair of speakers that I assembled myself. And like this others said, this is only my opinion, based on my sonic tastes and listening experiences. That's all it's worth.

 

[Todd smith]

I am sure the GR's are great (heard many good things) but I am not interested in a DIY for my first HT setup. This is a tuff call for me because the jbl's are now 279.00 at j&r (series 1) and they will not be around long and I dont care for the series 2. I have listened to quite a few speaks now from B&W, parad, infin, klipsch, tannoy, def-tech, jbl etc... So far the stud 40's have been my fav, but I liked the jbl's as well at the price. I cant get a a/b going due to the fact that know one has the series one in town anymore and the series 2 sound different to me. Sorry I am rambling, I know I need to figure this out on my own.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I'd go with the JBLs and save the money. I did this, and plan on a DIY loudspeaker setup as my next upgrade. $500 more can finish a 5 speaker surround if you go with the jbls.

I heard the paradigm studio 40s on a marantz receiver and heard the S38s on a rotel. Both are good sounding oversized bookshelfs. I'd have to A/B blind test them to notice a difference. The Paradigms did sound better, maybe about $150 better.

 

[Ken Hoyme]

Breck,

If they sound "boxy, boomy and bright" why did you try to negotiate a price for one??

Ken

 

[Dave Schofield]

Suckered? You've posted in other threads that the Minis were very good speakers.

 

[Dustin B]

They are selling you a $700 speaker that probably cost them $100 to make. This is robbery, and I can't justify it.

This isn't the exception, this is the rule (the exception are internet direct companies). Cost the manufacture (pick just about any common name and even most of the not so common names) in parts $100-150. Then sell it to the B&M for $350-400 to get the profit to pay for manufacturing facilities, R&D, advertising, employ salaries etc. Then the B&M sells it for $700-800 to make their money.

All of Paradigm's stuff (with maybe the exception of some of the Performance series stuff along with the 8" and PS series subs) is well worth it's CDN street price. But you are correct, a lot of it isn't worth full US retial. If you dealer won't budge off full US retail there are better options out there.

 

[Iian M]

Quote:

Contemplate that statement for a moment (may require head to be removed from ass). Then try and convince me it didn't sound just a tad pathetic.

 

[Craig Woodhall]

Breck,
maybe you should check out bose, i hear they are a good value for the money!

 

[John Garcia]

I read Danny's statement on Paradigm's speakers construction vs cost, and he is correct. What you are paying for is distribution, dealer mark-up and advertising. He admits that if he did the same, he would also have to charge more for his speakers, so I don't really see how you got cheated Breck?

I have Minis and no complaints, though I will switch to GRs once I get around to it (not the most important thing in my life right now).

Just because Danny wants to offer an excellent value to a small number of people, who basically find out by word of mouth, does not mean other companies should now charge less also. How much do you think it cost to build your car vs how much you paid for it? A cup of coffee costs about 1 cent, but I don't hear many people complaining about the $1-$2 price they pay for it on a daily basis.

If Paradigms that cost $1000 only cost $100 to build, then some of these other speakers must only really be worth about $10.00...

 

[Saurav]

I am sure the GR's are great (heard many good things) but I am not interested in a DIY for my first HT setup.

Just so you know, there are people on this forum who will build and finish the cabinets, and even install the components and sell you completed speakers. AFAIK, GR-Research also offers this facility, or at least they used to when I bought my speakers from them. Their price was $90 for assembling a pair, which I think is quite reasonable.

Of course, that will cost more than the S38s, I don't know how much the Studio 40s cost so I cannot compare.

 

[Jedd]

Todd, maybe you should decide with your budget first. And after that start to look for "the best" in your price range.
Generally, if we are not taking BS (bose $hit), double price will always give you better results, but it will be only about 10% gain. Double price again, get another 10% more. So it's matter of personal taste and budget where to stop.
As for me, my ears found paradigm refs to be the best sounding in 1k range, so I was ready to pay full US retail price to please them. Picking dimes for Canadian street price was an additional benefit.

 

[Dave Schofield]

Edit: Deleted after Mods took action.

 

[Steve Zimmerman]

I suspect that will be your last word on the subject, Breck.
EDIT: Looks like I was right... No sign of Breck
--Steve

 

[Saurav]

I really don't see how this is "getting screwed". If someone doesn't like the price of something, they buy something else. How is it more complicated than that? Everyone does this for everything else that they buy, so why should speakers be different? In fact, if someone buys something even though they don't think they got their money's worth, that seems to me to be a dumb thing to do.
And it might be a good idea to check your grammar before you call someone else on his spelling

 

[Dave Schofield]

One thing to note is that your Paradigm owner's response to a request for bargaining is not representative of Paradigm itself nor a majority of its dealers. Sure, most will try to sell for MSRP whenever possible, but it isn't professional ever to tell a customer that they'd better pay whatever price the dealer demands, due to the proximity of the next dealer down the road.

By your statement, even if the dealer had taken 50% off you'd still be unhappy with the price, so why even bother starting to bargain with him?

 

[Brian Bunge]

Just so you know, there are people on this forum who will build and finish the cabinets, and even install the components and sell you completed speakers. AFAIK, GR-Research also offers this facility, or at least they used to when I bought my speakers from them. Their price was $90 for assembling a pair, which I think is quite reasonable.

Saurav,

Danny will soon be offering cabinets for the AV-1's and AV-1+'s through his website (I'm the builder, as you probably know already). There won't be any cabinets for the Paradox series as they will be gone shortly anyway. I spoke with him today and I think the $90 price will stand for a pair of AV-1's assembled and maybe slightly more for the AV-1+'s. It would just be a matter of Danny shipping the kits to me for assembly and then I'd ship the completed speakers to the customer.

Brian

 

[Saurav]

Sounds pretty reasonable, based on the time/complexity of the Paradoxes that I assembled. Of course, IMO it's much more fun to put something together yourself
For the future - do you have any tips for effectively soldering resistors and wires to those foil inductors? I had to resort to brute force - lots of heat and lots of solder. Is there a more elegant solution?