Stereotype Hifi Blog

Being in the Hifi business I have the opportunity to play with many products of various performance and price. It is just natural to play with the more expensive gear because that is where the excitement lies! But life is about balance, we are all different and different things are important to us. We all started somewhere at someplace in life. I did too.

I still remember my first Hifi set I bought. I remember how I did my research, how I saved up and then finally had to borrow a few $ from my bank before I could buy my dream system. I still remember how excited I was, that new smell right out of the box. I felt the weight, looked at the finish, set it up and listened to it for the first time. It SOUNDED MUCH BETTER than in the shop! Maybe it was my imagination? Who cares, it was mine! I was hooked.

However it did not take a long time before the ‘upgrade bug’ got hold of me. I still remember that adrenaline rush to search and save up for the new amp, then new speakers and so on… About 10 years later I sold my last component of my first Hifi set, a Technics SL-1200 turntable. I replaced it with a Technics SL-1100, the father of them all, which I still have today.

Why this story? Because I came across a set of speakers that are targeted for the first time buyer, but unlike the cheap plastic rubbish that are now dished up for the young, this is something special, something I would have been proud to own as a first time buyer. So if you are on a budget (or perhaps even if you’re not) this is for you. Why? Because not every Tom, Dick and Harry will have them and you will not get them at the stores that sell the plastic models. The really good news is that you will not pay more, in fact you will pay less for a far better product, that will sound better and will last longer!

When I look at a new audio product to buy I look at these four L’s in this order: LOOKS, LABEL (Brand), LIST price (RRP) and if a product ticks these 3 L’s then I will finally LISTEN to it. I will only consider buying a product if it tics all four L’s. The new Mordaunt Short Carnival speakers are such products. I was stunned when I first lay my eyes, hands and ears onto them, how is this possible for this kind of money? Let’s look at how these new speakers fit the 4 x L criteria.

LOOKS

• Modern, stylish slim-line MDF cabinets – no chip board here
• Attractive ‘wood look’ finish – no cheap, shiny plastic here.
• Woven composite ‘Kevlar type’ driver cones with proper metal phase plugs – no plastic dummy plugs here
• Proper rubber surrounds for durability – not cheap foam that perishes

The Carnival 6 and 8 floorstanders come with outrigger feet and spikes to stabilize them. They even have a separate mass loading compartment at the bottom that you can fill with sand to anchor them to your floor to make their bass even more solid and to reduced cabinet vibration even further. Both the floorstanders and the Carnival 2 book shelf can be bi-wired as well! The bass reflex ports are on the front allowing closer placement to the back wall without the dreaded bass drone of rear ported products. All these features are trademarks of high end speakers and it is a very nice touch of Mordaunt Short to add them to the Carnival range at this price point.

The black finish looks like real wood, its a black ash, not a black satin finish.

The three ‘show models’ in the range to me is the tiny Carnival 1, the ultra slim-line small Carnival 6 floor-stander and the Carnival 7 sub.

The Carnival 1 is a tiny speaker, about the size of your hand, but to give them heart Mordaunt Short made them sealed units, thus no bass reflex port that can make that terrible port noise on small speakers. You can also mount them directly against the wall (they come with small brackets fitted). The Carnival 1’s are far better looking in their wood look finish than their mass market plastic speaker counterparts. More importantly, they sound like a proper speaker not like a transistor radio speaker, but they do need to be paired with a subwoofer to reach the lower notes.

The Carnival 6 is to me the star in the range. It ticks all the right boxes. It’s a super slim line model, only 910 mm high with its spikes fitted. They have a soft dome tweeter and two bass/mid range drivers. The grill only covers the drivers on the cabinet and leaves enough wood to enhance their aesthetic appeal.

The Carnival 7 sub is next on the list. This must be one of the most elegant subs I have seen, it’s small, less than a 12″ cube but with a performance that will stun you. The four outrigger feet and spikes are a further nice touch to add to their looks. So this new Carnival range definitely ticks the LOOK box with great WAF (Wife Acceptance factor).

LABEL

The Brand Mordaunt Short is one of the great success stories of UK speaker manufacturers. They have a great pedigree that stood the test of time for more than 40 years and has won many awards for their speakers. Unlike most other British speakers companies like Wharfedale, Kef, Mission, Quad etc that have sold to Chinese companies, Mordaunt Short are still a UK company with huge research and design facilities in the UK. Every component in every speaker, even their drivers are all in-house propriety designs. They produce some of the most advance drivers you can find today holding various patent rights on speaker designs and drivers that span over many years. So you can tick the LABEL box as well.

LIST PRICE

When I first heard the RRP of these speakers I thought it was per speaker not per pair! The RRP in NZ $ range from only $249 pr to $1099 pr for the most expensive Carnival 8′s, and when compared to overseas pricing, NZ is one of the cheapest places to get these incredible speakers.

How they can do all this for so little money is beyond me? The only thing I can think of is that Mordaunt Short realised that they had to be better than the onslaught from the east. They have done it and we benefit from that… so you can definitely tick the PRICE box!

LISTENING TESTS

As pointed out before one of the stars for me in this line up is the Carnival 6 floorstanders. They must be the best value for money floor-standers available in NZ to-date. Their sound is crystal clear, with a rich midrange and the bass is tight and fast, lacking only the deep bass notes which is in any case you can leave for a sub. The sound is slightly on the bright side of neutral but that is best for Home Theatre in any case. So this is an ideal speaker if your choice is 60% movies and 40% music.

When compared to normal floor-standing speakers the Carnival 6 looks very slim-lined and aesthetically pleasing see picture comparing it to the Mordaunt Short Aviano 6.

If you want to go for 70% music then I would go for its big brother the Carnival 8. This is a lot of speaker for the money and makes for some serious competition for floorstanders under the $1500 mark. Delivering big sound and solid bass and a rich full bodied midrange, while the treble is slightly toned down compared to its smaller brother, the Carnival 6 however this makes the Carnival 8 a more listenable music speaker that you can turn up quite loud before the treble becomes too prominent.

Of the two bookshelf models the Carnival 1 is definitely the looker. This is one of the most beautiful and striking looking micro speakers I have seen. It’s very well built with a lot of weight showing no skimping on cheap magnets here and yes the phase plug is real not a fake one and the plug itself is metal not plastic! It’s a sealed enclosure and there in lies a small problem… They are not as efficient as the others in the range and thus needs more power to drive than their bigger brothers. Strange but true (see our blog on efficiency). However they have the advantage that you can hang them directly on the wall with none of the problems you will have with speakers with bass reflex ports.

I think that was Mordaunt short’s idea with this model: to use them in movie 5.1 setup that you can directly hang on the walls (they come with small wall brackets already fitted). Thus when you combining them with the dedicated Carnival 5 centre and the Carnival 7 sub you will get an entry level, all wood look, 5.1 movie set that can take on more expensive sets at a fraction of the cost. They are crisp and clear sounding with a clear midrange so you will hear every detail, backed up by a tight and punchy sub.

The much larger Carnival 2’s are definitely the better sounding model of the two bookshelf models. They have the same clarity as the Carnival 6’s but the midrange is where they really shine. To me delicate vocals sound the best on the Carnival 2 speakers. So if that is your preferred music taste go for them and just add the Carnival 7 or 9 sub to give you that extra bit of bass they lack. This is also the speakers that Sam Telling of Stereophile raved about. I cannot say it better than the well respected Sam Telling so I rather quote him:

Stereophile: Mordaunt-Short Carnival 2 loudspeaker By Sam Tellig, August 2009.

The Carnival 2s imaged like crazy. Their soundstage was deep and wide, the images solid and stable. What’s wrong with these $250 sneakers-er, speakers? Nothing. Buy a pair just for fun.

The treble was refined and surprisingly sweet. Or not surprisingly: the soft-dome tweeter is made of fabric.

I didn’t catch a case of metal-dome tweeteritis, the way I do with so many cheap and less cheerful speakers.

So yes, this is probably one of the BEST VALUE for MONEY BOOKSHELF speakers you can buy.

The Carnival 3 dipole rears can be placed on stands but its best to hang them on the side walls.  As all the dedicated movie fans will know dipole rears are by far the best as they disperse the sound around you, rather than directing it straight at you. The Carnival 3’s are probably the cheapest dipole rears you can buy in NZ. Not only that, they have each 4 drivers (two tweeters and two mids – most others only have one tweeter). Even if you already have other speakers and looking for dipole rears the Carnival 3 are so cheap its worth just to buy a set for your HT room regardless, you will then experience how real ‘surround sound’ can be.

That leaves us with the Carnival 9 sub. I specifically left this for last because this is something special… for $699. Yes that is right, only $699! There is not a sub that I have ever heard at this price that can even compete with this guy! It’s not small at just under 15″ cubed with a 10″ driver with solid big rubber surrounds. This sub has all the right virtues of a great sub for movies (and for music if you get the settings and position in your room right). For this money you could buy two, one for the front corner and one for the rear corner and I doubt if you will ever want to upgrade your subs. The outrigger feet and spikes add a touch of class to this magnificent sub nothing can come close at this price!

So we you can definitely tick the LISTEN box on all the Carnival series as well.

So which model is right for you?

From my experience with this exceptional value for money speaker range this is my recommendations:

Carnival 1 Package: 4 x Carnival 1 + Carnival 5 center + Carnival 7 sub
For rooms less than 30 sqm and importance HT 75% and music 25%

If you want a minimalist life style set and your preference is movies then I cannot think of any speaker set available in NZ for this type of money that can beat the Carnival 1 5.1 set 1. If you can spend the extra $200, go for the Carnival sub 9 it is well worth the extra especially for a bigger room..

Carnival 2 Package: 2 x Carnival 2 + 2 x Carnival 3 + Carnival 5 cen + Carnival 7 sub
For rooms less than 30sqm and importance HT 55% and music 45%

If your room is less than 30sqm and music is more important than movies go for the Carnival 2 as front speakers, they excel at vocal music. You can then add the package later if you want to expand into movies as well. Again if you can afford an extra $200 go for the Carnival 9 sub and this system will fill rooms up to 50sqm.

Carnival 6 Package: 2 x Carnival 6 + 2 x Carnival 3 + Carnival 5 cen + Carnival 7 sub
For rooms less than 50 sqm and importance HT 50% and music 50%

If music and movies are equally important to you but you cannot afford a whole 5.1 package now go for the Carnival 6 and add the rest later as we recommend in set 6. The Carnival 6 speakers excel on fine delicate and acoustic type of music, like guitar and Jazz. If you can stretch an extra $200 we definitely recommend the Carnival 9 sub. This is also important if your room is bigger than 50sqm

Carnival 8 Package: 2 x Carnival 8 + 2 x Carnival 3 + Carnival 5 cen + Carnival 9 sub
For rooms more than 30sqm and importance HT 45% music 55%

If music is more important to you than movies and you just want a pair of front speakers then the Carnival 8 is the answer. They are good for all types of music but excel on modern music. If you later want to expand into movies then we recommend the Carnival 8 package. In terms of subs, you need the bigger Carnival 9 with these speakers.

To sum up

As you by now probably gathered our favourites is the Carnival 6 floorstanders, Carnival 2 bookshelf speakers and the Carnival 9 sub. They are all exceptional value for money. However all of the new Mordaunt Short Carnival range speakers have a place and it all depends on your room and you preferred music and/ or movie taste. One thing is for sure… we have never seen a value for money speaker range like this in NZ to date.

We are very excited to announce we now stock Audioengine products! Audioengine has really impressed us with their future lead designs embracing digital music. The A2 ($395) and A5 ($695) speakers are the perfect complement for your iPod, laptop, PC, CD player, well just about anything really that has an output! With built in amplifiers there is no need for a separate amp, just plugin your iPod and you’re away, away to high fidelity sound from a compact system. The S8 subwoofer ($795) is 8″ downfiring design that really complements the A2 well as these are a little light on bass – as you would expect from such a small wooden cabinet.  Take a look at the range, and continue reading about what Mike Mercer had to say about the A2′s.

Sonic Satori: i-Fi is The Future, Bring Your Computer Closer to High Fidelity… by Michael Mercer

It’s a great time to be a music and sound addict. As stated before in this column; we now have unprecedented access to music in this age of instant media delivery. The audio purists may pooh-pooh MP3 and the like, but their complaints are irrelevant. Not every music file or stream on the web is poor quality. Like everything else in life; you can choose what level of quality you get. You just have to spend a little time investigating what’s out there. Forget the haters, the doubters, the pocket-protector audiophiles who deny that a computer can be just as legitimate a source as their favorite CD/SACD deck. Now, is there still a place for vinyl/analog? Of course there is (hell I only DJ with vinyl, no CDs), but this isn’t about excluding anything. It’s about accepting the present, and forging ahead with the same enthusiasm that analog-driven music systems once inspired in some of the great audio designers.

Fortunately there are many companies in the Hifi business not only accepting this digital, downloadable revolution, but actually embracing it; and we – the end users, get to bask in their audible efforts. Here I’ll tackle two components that can work beautifully together or individually, in case you already own either one (speakers, or an external DAC for your computer).

AUDIOENGINE A2 Powered Speakers – $395.00

These little gems have taken both the desktop audio and high end communities by storm with their unbelievable dynamics, packed into tiny boxes, not to mention the price! Measuring in at only 6”(H) x 4”(W) x 5.25”(D) you’d think the sound of these speakers would be limited by their physical size. This is far from true. As a matter of fact, they are so impressive I put them atop my list of seriously high valued audio products (the Wadia iTransport being another, along with the HRT Streamer II USB DAC, both covered here previously). Their ability to create depth and width is simply astounding, and many of my own clients have said so without any solicitation from me.

They also look fantastic; available in high gloss white and black. AUDIOENGINE also offers a desktop stand for the speakers (a sort of wedge, which helps to raise their firing angle; aiding in image specificity when seated between them at your desk). They offer two inputs, one via stereo-mini (1/8”) and the other standard RCA jacks. The power block is about the size of a PC laptops power supply, and this is one of the reasons they sound far better than anything in their league. Another is the fact that unlike most powered monitor speakers that have the on-board amplifier in both cabinets, AUDIOENGINE puts a stereo amplifier in one box (the left channel) and then you feed the right channel through standard speaker wire. This keeps the noise level induced by the amplifier down, allowing for the music to shine through.

You simply have to hear these speakers to believe how good they are, and if you’re skeptical, be my guest and do some online research. I bet you’d have trouble finding a mediocre review. That’s a rarity, especially in an audio product that carries a price tag of $395. I’m not saying you’re going to shake the windows with their bass response, as the small size has obvious drawbacks when it comes to bottom end, but they also make a subwoofer (review to come soon), which can take care of everything below. I’ve listened to everything from Future Sound of London to Martin Sexton on these mini-monitors, and they surprise me every time. For the end-user who’s not interested in floorstanders taking over their room, or even stand-mounted bookshelf speakers (AUDIOENGINE offers their A5 for this application) the A2 provides unmatched musical performance in both this size and price range. Check them out ASAP. You won’t be disappointed.

———

You can continue reading Mike’s article on his Sonic Satori blog over at the Daily Swarm

View the Audioengine range and more images

A new model that builds on the same principles
used on all the other MJ Acoustics subs. Enter the Pro 55 Mk1 Subwoofer.

MJ Acoustics is world famous for their small miracle musical subs, but the Home Theatre (HT) guys wanted more “Bang” so MJ Acoustics was faced with the dilemma of how to build a HT sub that can still sounds musical as well. This is not and easy task because you need a different approach for each and this is not generally understood by the ‘man in the street’ or even by “reviewers” in Hifi magazines. It is understandable that some of these reviewers have a personal view of what products are good and what are bad. Many people also believe that this is driven by how much a company is prepared to spend on advertising in the magazine. Beware of these types of magazines. You can spot them easily; they do not back their reviews with scientific measurements and proof.

The problem is the uninformed ‘man in the street’ relies on these “experts” for guidance. A bad review can rob them from the opportunity to experience the products for themselves. A few years back we use to go and listen to the products ourselves and compare that to others in the market.  Not any more, it’s much easier to just “surf the net” for info. There in lies the danger: you rely on others (with their own personal taste) to make the decisions for you which can leave you unhappy.

A good example is the case of the new MJ Acoustic Pro 55 Mk1 Subwoofer: below is my first notes that I wrote for the importer and I later found a review in a British Hifi magazine “The world’s No 1 home entertainment magazine” (their slogan not mine). They reported some aspects completely different to what I have experienced. There were no scientific measurements  unlike some of the better known British and USA magazines. So I was very surprised how is this possible?

The debate of honest and unbiased reviews are as old as Hifi itself and it stuns me sometimes that cheaply made horrible sounding units get 5 stars and other well made units that use scientifically proven methods only get a few stars. Makes you wonder what value these reviews have other than trying to boost a cheaply made product of a big company with a huge advertising budget. Compared to well made honest products of small companies that try to make the best product they can for your money and using the advertising money to actually build a much better product.

Its scary how we rely too much on advertising rather than our own judgement, not only in what we buy, but also in what we do everyday – what we eat, even what we think. I am from the old school and do not buy into this. I use mostly commonsense and then further study aspects of these senses to help me in making informed decisions on what is important for me and what is not. The end result is far more enjoyable than just having something that another guy told you to have. So let us revisit the commonsense and scientific principles of what is important in choosing a sub for music and/or home theatre? This is covered in our Subwoofer FAQ’s, but I thought I’d repeat it here as it seems appropriate.

To get the best advice in life you have to go to a specialist. If you are feeling ill you go to a doctor but if you are really sick, or need an operation, you have to go to specialist. A specialist is just that: a specialist in his area of expertise.  So is it with everything in life, if you need the best bed you go to a bed specialist store. If you need the best sub you must go for a specialist sub builder. There are only a handful of these companies in the world today that can be called a sub building specialist, MJ Acoustics is one of them.

The following 6 principles can guide you in making a choice for the right sub for your needs.

1. Build Quality:  The best subwoofers are the ones that are designed and manufactured in their home country, ideally in their own factories, with their own dedicated staff, not in a far off country were they pay the poor workers peanuts and expect them to be proud of their work, it will not happen… ever.

2. Brand Pedigree: The brand must also have a “pedigree”, that is it must stood the test of time.

3. Driver Size: The simple key to produce more bass is” The bigger the driver the better and the quality go hand in hand with the weight of the sub.  The basic physics of bass sound is to move air at low frequencies. The more air you want to move (for good bass) the bigger the driver you need. To design a good small sub is a very challenging engineering job and a hot topic nowadays, but its not easy and its expensive.

4. Design Principles:  There are basically 3 types of sub designs:

• TYPE 1 – Bass driver inside the cabinet and the only bass that comes out are from a port. They are the worst sounding subs with a “hollow, drooney, tube like” bass sound. Remember when you were a kid you talked into a tube to lower your voice. Well that is the same principle used here. This type is used by the mass market “all in one sub/sat sets” from Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, JVC, Bose etc. because it’s cheap to make, you only need cheap small drivers  6″ that do not need to move a lot of air to fake “bass” sounds. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THESE TYPES of SUBS

• TYPE 2 – Bass Reflex – This design is mainly used for  Home theatre (HT) subs. HT basically  consists of a lot of dialog, high frequency effects and lots of “distortion” in the bass frequencies. That is why bass quantity (volume) is far more important than quality and for that you need a big sub woofer and to increase bass volume a bass port is also used to push air out – the so called bass reflex design. However, you introduce distortion (typically 10% to 20%) and also port noise. This is not critical for HT which is distortion and noise in any case at the low frequencies. The advantage of the bass reflex design is that you can build these subs much cheaper, with cheaper cabinets, cheaper drivers and cheaper amplifiers.

• TYPE 3 – Sealed Enclosure – For music, the bass reflex design and big subs is not ideal, in fact nearly the opposite is needed: you need a well designed small sub with accurate bass and less distortion and no port noise. Bass reproduction for music is very important (turn the bass control on your amp completely down and listen how the scale of the music disappears). However “lots” of bass can tire you out very quickly, especially when it drones. Quality bass is far more important, the bass must be tight, well defined and must have bass weight. The best music subs are from the sealed enclosure type (not bass reflex). Sealed subs generally goes lower and have less distortion than bass reflex subs and do not have the dreaded port noise. Sealed subs are expensive to make because the sub’s amp needs to be at least 3x more powerful to drive the driver against the trapped air inside the sealed box. The cabinet must also be made super strong to have no vibrations of its own. That is why the best and most expensive sub from major sub builders in the world use subs of the sealed enclosure type

5. Driver Placement: Another important factor is the placement of the driver. These are very heavy units with huge magnets and it makes sense to fit them in a down-firing way to support themselves. This also has the added advantage of using nature own force, the gravitational force, to help pull the driver down on the start and damp it on the backward movement. This is Ideal for a fast tight bass without the dreaded overhang. It also remove the necessity to turn  your big driver (on front firing subs) every few years at 180 degrees to compensate for the dragging  force on the driver’s rubber surround and voice coil.  The driver also fires at right angles to the main speaker’s drivers making correct phasing and placement in the room less critical.

Now let us see how the MJ Acoustics PRO 55 MK1 sub fits against the above principles.

1. Build Quality: Its 100% designed and built in England.
2. Brand Pedigree: MJ Acoustics have probably won more awards for each of their subs than any other.
3. Driver Size: This is a 12″ driver only beaten by a few 15″ drivers and its big brother the Ref 800 with an 18″ driver
4. Design Principles: Sealed enclosure, the best
5. Driver Placement: Down firing – Yes

So, it ticks all the boxes… the question then “Is the MJ Acoustics Pro 55 Mk1 a ‘Best of both worlds’ sub suitable for Music and HT?”

This is my notes I wrote the John, the NZ importer of MJ Acoustics subs, when I first auditioned this sub.

Hi John,

I now had the opportunity to listen to this new model. What and interesting and very enjoyable day! My immediate thought was – this is good stuff!

I listened to the new Pro 50 Mk1 first as a musical sub with my ProAc Reference 8 small bookshelf speakers, again I heard the same unmistakably unique MJ Acoustic characteristic sound that underpins all MJ Acoustics subs this really separates all of them from the rest of the subs from other brands… clean, tight, fast bass with slam and bass weight, yet still able to reproduce subtlety and detail. The Pro 55 mk1 has heaps more of everything! even at low volumes. As the volume is turned up, the Pro 55 mk1 continues to shine… it just keeps getting louder, yet the sound still remains tight, detailed and controlled, even at very loud levels…fantastic! Why do you need big floor-stander speakers and big amps at huge cost to drive them if you can get the same, no better! With this combo at a 1/10 of the price?

“But wait there is more!” I took the Pro 55 Mk1 down to the home theatre room and invited my wife to come and listen as well (we love to listen to live recorded musical DVD’s). I set it up basically using the same settings as for music and we started the show… we looked at each other and I could see the disbelief in her eyes, we were shocked! We know that track so well, yet we were hearing bass detail that we have never heard before. I turned its volume up another notch and the power and massiveness of the bass thumped at our chests… we heard things like double bass… different types of bass… different types of slam… totally separate of one another… not a single rumble of all instruments stuffed together like with most subs. I turned up the main volume of my AVR and we sat back and listened track after track, we could not stop; we did not want to turn the volume down because it was all sheer enjoyment and when it all stopped, we felt a bit disappointed and a few seconds later I realised what it was… we wanted an encore!

I only ever heard this quality of bass with my $4000 Jamo D6, $5500 Paradigm Servo 15  (both 15″ bass drivers at many times the power) & the bigger MJ models… The MJ Acoustics Pro 55 Mk1 must be the best bargain in Subwoofer History! Suitable for both Music and Home Theatre… how does the saying go? “Yes MJ.. Has done it again”.

1. WOW the boxes are small, but wait… its heavy that is a good sign… it means proper drivers with proper magnets, a solid cabinet of solid built and heavy duty terminals.

2. Open the first box, Ah hah!! New packaging… I like that, much simpler to repack one day when you move. Wow the speaker looks stunning, the size is spot on, the finish is some of the best I have seen apart from Paradigm’s signature series and yes everything looks and feels solid. I like the real wood cherry finish, real wood finish is very rare now a days. Yes this looks very classy… even the detail on the back with speaker’s terminals, class and more class… mmmm… much shallower than the previous studio 60 model. I am a bit worried though, is it going to sound thin?

3. Took one grill off and look at the drivers…nice. Nice solid aluminum mounting plates, yes quality. The new midrange driver, I touch it with the back of my hand… yes it’s an aluminum driver… aaagh no!!  A dummy phase plug on the mid driver… WHY? will come back to that in a minute.

4. Hook them up – both grills off (I always do that with testing, the more naked and clear the speakers stand from any surroundings, the least they can hide something) – I am always nervous when testing a new speaker with my favorite testing track Toni Childs’ track “when all is said and done” from her new album “Keep the Faith“ I saw here live in Auckland recently and thus know how her voice sound in real life. The richness and clarity of her unique strong voice is a true test for any midrange and if that is not right in a speaker then no matter how good the rest is, its never going to impress me. This time I decided to play it first because that dummy phase plug worries me! I insert the CD and set the amp to my normal listening level (not too loud because then you will mask the problems of a speaker) I know this track so well on so many speakers of so many price brackets and?  a sigh of relief… I sit back and listen… I seldom smile when listening… but I could not help myself… yes Tiens you jump to conclusions too fast, her voice sounds rich and clear, close to my $25K reference speakers just not at the same scale but that is to be expected. Yes I like that, no longer am I thinking about the dummy phase plug I will never see it again!

5. Something else caught my attention, their is an air around her voice and her guitar sounds crystal clear. I hardly noticed this before it must be the aluminum G-Pal tweeter I think, concentrating on that confirmed that that was indeed the case. Now I am hooked, this tweeter extends the top end to unheard of heights and instruments sounded a little more free in air and distinct not the squeezed in and ringing of most other metal dome tweeters from other rival speakers.

6. Ok, I can’t wait to test the bass, that slim line shallow cabinet has got my teeth on each other… sheeesh.. I wonder?  Ok I know it’s not ‘run in’ but what the heck I am going to do it, out comes TIESTO’s “Elements of Life” a mixture of electronic dance music with fast tight slam bass and deep rumble bass now and then and with incredible complex fast passages of treble and mids. A true test of speed and attack and bass in all its forms, first track YES! third track YES! I skip to the last two tracks where everything happens in all their glory, YES and YES… I LIKE THESE SPEAKERS A LOT!

I think I got myself a new favorite speaker under $4000! The first time in 10 years that I made that decision in ONE day… gee whizz… I hope I was not dreaming when I will play these incredible speakers tomorrow!  SOUND, LOOKS, SIZE and PRICE its all there!

- Tiens

PS: On this last CD I noticed the mid driver can move a lot unusually so… I checked the web of Paradigm for any clues. This is a totally new driver made by them for the new Studio 60 and the new entry level Studio 10 speaker (the smallest speaker ever in the Reference Studio range) At the back of the driver there is a 1.5″ (more than 3cm) voice coil!  basically unheard off for a mid driver – so 1cm movement to the front and 1cm movement to the back of that driver is an easy feat! They use this driver to help with the bass as well in a 2 1/2 way design rather than a 3 way, clever… that is why I was so surprised by the amount of bass coming from these slim line Studio 60 speakers. The other two speakers in the studio range, the Studio 20 and Studio 100 use the original 7″ drivers from the previous models (with a real phase plug), just in the new superb rounded cabinets finished in real wood. The size of the cabinets is about the same size as the previous models. The Studio 10 and Studio 60 are completely new models, much smaller, more minimalist style, with a huge WAF!! (Wife acceptance factor) In fact I think it is the most beautifully designed and finished speakers at their price points in the market today and with sound to boot as well… it can only be a winner. See the full details and images of each model in the new studio range below.

Paradigm Reference Studio 10

Paradigm Reference Studio 20

Paradigm Reference Studio 60

Paradigm Reference Studio 100

PPS: Can’t wait to get our hands on the Studio 10 and 20′s, partner these with a Musical Subwoofer and that will be something special.