Polk or Paradigm? (1 Viewer)

[John Garcia]

Paradigm makes almost all their own parts, so we are not talking bottom of the barrel off the shelf parts here.

If it were between the Polk RTi line and Paradigm Monitor line, I'd go with the Paradigms. Between the LSis and the Studios, that would be tougher, but probably the LSis.

 

[Steven Simon]

I personally belive Paradigm Reference speakers are the best value/performance for the buck out there... You can't beat their reference series for the price...

I have heard many higher end speakers, BW Nat. 802's Ect... Paradigm is right up there

 

[Robert Crawford]

Today, I bought my first speakers in 20 years that didn't have the brand name of Polk on them. The speakers have the Paradigm Reference name.




Crawdaddy

 

[Steven Simon]

Crawdaddy,

Which model did you go with??

 

[Robert Crawford]

I chose not to second guess myself later, so I bought the top of the Reference line.





Crawdaddy

 

[Steven Simon]

You won't regret it Crawdaddy.. Now you need a minimum of 200 Watts of clean power to drive those beasts!!!

 

[Brian Barnesky]

Congrats C-daddy......

i just got 100's, 570, and 470's. Sound great (even though got a bad crossover or tweeter and exchanging a 100) My sony 444ES doesn''t have a chance with these. I need an amp as well and that's a different topic I guess but let me know what you go with.
b

 

[cabreau]

I completely disagree with this statement. First, I want to say that I've owned Bose, Paradigm Performance series, and now I own Paradigm Studio series speakers. I did quite a bit of research and listening with different companies before buying these Paradigms. I have to say that putting Paradigm in the same low class as Bose...shows how much YOU know. LOL. I don't know much about Polk speakers, so I can't really defend them.

Paradigm designs and manufactures all of the parts for their speakers IN HOUSE. They build their speakers from the ground up. Ascend Accoustics purchases drivers that are made by other companies - drivers that "meet their specifications..." What this means is that Ascend buys drivers and parts from other manufacturers while Paradigm BUILDS the drivers and parts the way themselves, to EXACT specs, they don't go out looking for drivers that are "close" to their specs. As as far as Paradigm (and probably Polk) making a "cheap speaker" as you put it, I think that y ou are way off. Paradigm is known for selling speakers that deliver the best "bang for your buck". Paradigm has recently broken this mold with the Signature series, though, and made a speaker line that just plain KICKS ASS.

I'm not downing Ascend - I'm sure they sound very nice. But you should NEVER put Paradigm in the same degenerate class as Bose. Who knows, maybe most people would even PREFER the Paradigm sound tot he Ascend sound...we may never know.

From what I've read, you weren't far off on the choice of subwoofer though. I hear that those SVS subs whoop. In fact, I'd have one right now, but my trade up options forced me to stick with my Paradigm PW-2200, which I'm extremely happy with by the way.

 

[Levesque]

Posted by RichG

"Well, you get a cheaply made product, and pay more then you need to. My advice. Ignore brands like Paradign, Polk, and worst of worst Bose"

Damn! I knew it! They got me when I bought my Paradigm Signature set-up...

 

[Steven Simon]

LOL!!! At Paradigm being mass market!!

 

[GrahamT]

Another happy Paradigm owner here, guess they tricked me good. Polk Audio is very good too.

Our resident speaker expert Rich:


Notice the contradictions and how he spells ParadigM wrong twice! Yeah, he must know a lot about them.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I went with a Outlaw-770 amp along with a Rotel-1068 as my Surround Sound Processor. I am a very happy camper!






Crawdaddy

 

[Jan H]

Both Polk's LSi line and the Paradigm References are superb speakers, but why Bose was mentioned with them is utterly mystifying to me. Anyway, I was down to two choices when auditioning speakers 2 years ago: The Polk LSi 25's and the Paradigm 100's. Decided on the LSi's because the tweeter was a bit more detailed and the powered woofs were truly formidable. Took me awhile to tame them and integrate them with the SVS 20-39 PC+, but once I set it, I have forgotten it. Simply incredible sound. I'm running the 25's , the C and FX speakers with an Integra DTC-9.4 pre/pro and and EAD Powermaster 1000. The 100's are a great choice, too, though.

 

[Travis_R]

My friend I completely understand your delema, I am going to be puttin my HT speaker system together soon, I listened to some Klipsch and Polks tonight, the store I was at carreid all lines of each brand, from the low ends to the ones that make your hand start shakin when you hand over your credit card, I have never heard paradigm but have heard NOTHING but great things about them, after testing out all the speakers for literally over an hour, I actually had the guy at the electronic store just show me how to switch speakers and subs and audio tracks on their fancy setup cuz he was gonna be there for a while.... .... anyway after being there for that long between those 2 brands I would be going with POLK, However Paradigm is still an option that I want to look at, but the only place I can preview them is about an hour away, all I can say is your gonna have to take the time and find a place that has things set up right and preview both brands, but if you can get a good price on Paradigm's I dont think you can go wrong with them

 

[Jake S]

Wow, talk about targeted marketing!

Yeah , I agree , go with speakers that you can't A/B against the competition properly (unless you have A LOT OF MONEY AND TIME).

I have LSI15's (and the rest of the 7.1 system) but will soon be selling them and getting either Paradigms (100's)or B&w's (703's)

Hope this helps

 

[Ralph B]

if you can find a speaker that can put out bass as good as the Monitor 7 in its price range let me know cause I tested Polk among others and the Paradigm out performed them to my ears. soon as I heard the Monitor 7's I was sold. I was amazed at the bass output the speakers can out out alone. although I own a SVS sub I appreciated the bass the Monitor 7's can put out.


I love mine and were a steal at the price I paid. brand new $500 for the pair and they were V.3's

this was over a year ago. I heard the polks and personally they fell flat against the Paradin Monitor 7's.


as for Bose against Paradigm. I will only respond with a very loud laugh!!! LOL

nver considered Paradigm mass market. haha, pretty funny statement.

 

[Jan H]

Umm, which Polks? If you heard the Monitor 7's vs. the LSi 15's or 25's, you need may need to see a specialist.

Jake, I'm curious, why did you feel the need to switch to the 'digms or the B&Ws?

 

[Vital]

Polk is not really in the same league as Paradigm IMO.

 

[Will-Layfield]

while I believe the person who asked for our opinion has already made a speaker decision I will give my advice. I recently purchased speakers for hometheater and I did alot of research because I was fairly new to hometheater. After reading about how alot of purchases depends on PREFERENCE & how the store might have the speakers SET UP, I decided with that knowledge I would go out and test out some speakers and try to bring them home. I went to several stores and listened to some recommended inexpensive lines of speakers. I had made my choice on paradigms titans/cc-170. I got the titans home and hooked them up and and did a comparison to my similarly priced infinity's I was replacing them with and was unimpressed. I thought they sounded better in the store then when I got them home. Needless to say I gladly returned the speakers and ate the re-stocking fee. I continued my quest for speakers and came across speakers from polk. I auditioned them in store and was pleased so I took them home and did a in home test and I liked them better than the paradigms. So for what it is worth I think you should try and take whatever you choose home and audition first. P.S.-I dont think paradigm is a bad brand. They make great speakers especially their upper end stuff which I oogled over while testing out speakers.

 

[Yung]

Will,
How long did you have the Paradigm Titans at home for? I'm just curious as to whether you had them long enough to break them in. The pair in the store has probably hours and hours of play on them and have been broken in and thats why they sounded better in the store. From what I have read, the Titans open up and sound a lot better once they have been broken in. Comparing them out of the box to a pair of Infinity's that you have had for a while might not be that fair.