Paradigm’s Founder Series Loudspeakers Mix Signature Design, Cutting-Edge Science

S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
founders family photo.jpg
Paradigm has recently replaced their acclaimed Prestige loudspeaker line with the Founder series. The Prestiges were launched in 2014, and seven years is a good run for a loudspeaker line, but new technologies doubtlessly pressured Paradigm into making something much improved for the same cost. The Founder speakers are packed to the gills with new advances in loudspeaker design, yet they keep many signature Paradigm design elements. The result is a speaker that pushes the technology envelope while benefiting from traditional engineering practices that have served Paradigm so well over the years. Read our preview of Paradigm's Founder speakers to see how much further forward they have pushed the high-end of sound reproduction.

READ: Paradigm Launches New Line of High-End 'Founders' Speakers Packed With Latest Technology
 
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ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Somebody posted about these the other day. Looks interesting, but crazy expensive, sadly. Intrigued though at the hybrid Active/Passive design: hoping they include the Amps and DSP programming at the pricing I saw.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I thought it was just the one speaker that was active from what little I looked at....
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Correct. I did a little more digging and it is only the 120H that has the Active Bass... though their diagram doesn't show a passive XO with it... I guess we'll find out when they get the preview up. :)
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Correct. I did a little more digging and it is only the 120H that has the Active Bass... though their diagram doesn't show a passive XO with it... I guess we'll find out when they get the preview up. :)
Ah, thought it was altogether an active speaker, not just bass, but didn't see a lot of details.
 
H

Hetfield

Audioholic Samurai
Somebody posted about these the other day. Looks interesting, but crazy expensive, sadly. Intrigued though at the hybrid Active/Passive design: hoping they include the Amps and DSP programming at the pricing I saw.
I've been hearing about these for some time, lose how expensive are we talking? They look and I assume extremely expensive but haven't seen any members.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 
Cos

Cos

Audioholic Samurai
Somebody posted about these the other day. Looks interesting, but crazy expensive, sadly. Intrigued though at the hybrid Active/Passive design: hoping they include the Amps and DSP programming at the pricing I saw.
I was the one who posted about these the other day, just the marketing and annoucment. Nice job as always Shady J in breaking down the tech.

Crazy expensive is relative, lol the persona line is xtra crazy expensive ;). I like the fact the original founders bought back Paradigm, along with MartinLogan. Paradigm seems to have a love/hate on this site. I get the issues with the spike in the graph around 10k. In all honesty, I am 100% satisfied with my little Persona 3Fs, the detail and soundstage in my room continue to impress and I do not find them the least bit fatiguing.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Finally got caught up. Nice write up Shady! Thank you. :)
 
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic
I'm not sure there's ever been an audio company that's had such huge paradigm shifts in design philosophy from one generation to another. From NRC inspired designs that remind you of Revel (Signature Series), to unexplainable shifts to being a Bowers & Wilkens me-too brand (Persona) and now suddenly they've decided to up and go Coaxial, after perhaps the recent success of KEF. The 70LCR in particular almost reminds me of a Genelec 8351 turned into a passive speaker...

I guess this company is aptly named Paradigm after all :D
 
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Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
These look really interesting. Building in active crossovers seems to be becoming a little bit more common now (thinking RBH at least). They're expensive now, but maybe we'll see some trickle down. It'd be cool to see more companies build more designs like this. Eventually costs could come down to more reasonable levels.
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
I'm not sure there's ever been an audio company that's had such huge paradigm shifts in design philosophy from one generation to another. From NRC inspired designs that remind you of Revel (Signature Series), to unexplainable shifts to being a Bowers & Wilkens me-too brand (Persona) and now suddenly they've decided to up and go Coaxial, after perhaps the recent success of KEF. The 70LCR in particular almost reminds me of a Genelec 8351 turned into a passive speaker...

I guess this company is aptly named Paradigm after all :D
And for the non-Canadians, the NRC is the Canadian National Research Council which does some great scientific research. Paradigm has used their facilities in some of their speaker design which has aided in their success. I agree with Cos that crazy expensive is relative. Yeah, the Persona line is crazy expensive, but while the Founder series is not cheap, it's not that far outside the realm of other manufacturers in that class. I would certainly be interested in giving them a listen. Whether I would sell my Studio series to upgrade is another matter. ;)
 
K

keepr88

Junior Audioholic
Anyone know when the review on these is coming out?
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I'm not sure there's ever been an audio company that's had such huge paradigm shifts in design philosophy from one generation to another. From NRC inspired designs that remind you of Revel (Signature Series), to unexplainable shifts to being a Bowers & Wilkens me-too brand (Persona) and now suddenly they've decided to up and go Coaxial, after perhaps the recent success of KEF. The 70LCR in particular almost reminds me of a Genelec 8351 turned into a passive speaker...

I guess this company is aptly named Paradigm after all :D
I agree, Paradigm has done a lot of innovating, but are you sure they're coaxial? I thought that was a big lens over just a tweeter?
 
K

keepr88

Junior Audioholic
I agree, Paradigm has done a lot of innovating, but are you sure they're coaxial? I thought that was a big lens over just a tweeter?
Coaxial on the 90c and the 70LCR models. The rest are tweeters with a waveguide I think
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Anyone know when the review on these is coming out?
It won't be for a little while, so don't hold your breath for one. It will come, but not right away. However, we are working on a lot of other cool reviews coming in the meantime to keep you busy.
 
K

keepr88

Junior Audioholic
Thanks for the update....just when I made up my mind to pull the trigger on the 800fs and then THESE came out. So now it's blow the budget on a pair of founder 80fs and 90c.....or go with the original plan 800fs and have some left over to upgrade in other areas.....
 
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latapx

Audioholic Intern
When will you be performing a full review of the Founders Series?
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
As was mentioned earlier, the irony of Paradigm’s launch of the Founder Series speakers is that many of the new features and technologies that Paradigm touts with dramatic buzz words and acronyms probably don’t have a big impact on the sound quality, while some of the more intelligent choices of the fundamental design that goes unmentioned or barely mentioned in their literature look to have a much more substantial impact.
Marketing folks. To quote Al Bundy - "Can't live with them, can't herd them all to Canada." ;)
 

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