I own a five speaker prestige system anchored by pair of the 75f's, and I respectfully disagree with your wonderful review. I have the satin black finish, and while I will say at first I was a little let down by the aesthetic. Now having enjoyed them for 6 months I have grown to really like it. There is something special about the unassuming stealth look they provide. They are hiding in plain sight if that makes sense. I would recommend anyone who is truly interested in these speakers to see the various finishes in person if possible. The quality of construction is more in the seamless joints and the solid weighted construction you alluded too. That being said to each is own, and I understand your point of view completely.
The only side note I would say is that you fail to mention Paradigms dealer network. It is commonly known that Paradigms can be had for less than the suggested msrp when purchasing through a dealer. So it could be argued that there is more bang for the buck when purchasing these speakers than you mentioned in your review. Which taken into account could have taken a little of the sting out of your reaction to the finish. Just my thoughts, and while I disagree with you on the aesthetics I completely agree with your review on the sound quality. Thanks for the thoughtful review and keep up the great work.
I have to agree with this. Hiding in plain sight is a great way to put it.
Besides, as I previously noted, the comments about throwing out the outer box, which would be essential to ship these anywhere without damage, I am also not impressed by this statement:
Interestingly, the upper models in the Prestige Series show diminishing returns in this respect, since the 85F’s 6.5-inch woofers/midrange and the 95F’s 8-inch woofers/midrange both trade superior bass response for narrower midrange dispersion and a rougher transition to the tweeter. The math is the math and the dispersion/power response at the crossover—all three models cross over at 2.0kHz—gets markedly worse as you go up to the larger models. Oh well.
I listened to the 85Fs and 95Fs when auditioning them at a local dealer before my purchase. My upgrade was rather substantial in going from Paradigm Monitor series 11se MK IIIs to the 95Fs. I have a music background, but I am not a professional. My wife, OTOH, does not have a music background and views herself as having little musical talent. I brought along a
DSD file of Handel: Royal Fireworks Music / The Water Music. My wife and I played track 12 on this with the 11se speakers at home before I went to audition the speakers. At about 4:20 of that track, there is what sounds like rather large, low frequency tympani. On the 11ses, anyone would have trouble recognizing that it is a tympani playing; it basically sounds like thuds. On the 95Fs, the tympani is well-defined and actually sounds like a tympani.
On getting the speakers home and after setting them up, I played the same track again for my wife, and she said, WOW. These really do sound a great deal better than the old speakers.
Anecdotal though this may be, the choice of material for the cone is something that I would argue that makes a difference. Aluminum is a much stiffer material than the cone material in the 11ses, and I suspect that it provides a better overall sound. It is pretty easy to cite mathematical formulas, however, IMO, it is much better to actually listen to the speakers before stating that there is diminishing returns. And, being no stranger to higher math, I get the principle of dispersion vs wavelength.
I got the 95Fs because, to me, they sounded noticeably better than the 85Fs.
