Paradigm Reference Studio 100 v3 Floorstanding Speakers

Paradigm Reference Studio 100 v3 Floorstanding Speakers 

DESCRIPTION

Bass-reflex enclosure, 25mm (1") satin-anodized pure aluminum dome tweeter, 178mm (7") mica-polymer cone midrange driver, 3 x 178mm (7") mineral-filled polypropylene cone bass driver, 3-way design, 44Hz-22kHz ±2dB, -3dB at 28Hz, 91dB sensitivity, 8 ohm compatible impedance, 44½"H x 8¼"W x 17"D, 162lbs/pair

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 11  
[Mar 15, 2011]
ardo
AudioPhile

This review is for the studio 100 v4
Have listened too many speakers before choosing this one. There is only one speaker to me that was better in every way and its price is over 8500$cdn. , I found a dealer who was stick with a pair that sounded awfull in its store. He was driving them with a Denon 4306 integrated amp.After reading a review by Absolute sound, I could not believe that they sounded so poor. I made a deal with him, saying I would pay him 200$, for a week in evaluating them home. He accepted and after the first hookup I was stunned by the music (clarity, rythm, sweet highs, full bass (deep and strong), a perfect midrange, excellent soundstage.I bought them an hour after starting to listen at them. Even at 3k$ they were a steal. I paid 2k$ for them and I do not regret it. Its probably the best value speaker on the market.

Lows: Require to be associated with high quality gears delivering high current, such as a Bryston or better gears , even if it can deliver 91db/watt. Need all the time to leave the grids installed (imaging)
HIghs: Only good points, construction. Will probably last a lifetime. Absolutely not agressive, can be listened for hours and hours without generating any listening fatigue. Canadian built, by a very well known company.

Music : classical : large orchestra, jazz, singers (male or female), operas

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 21, 2009]
djflex
AudioPhile

This review is for the new studio 100v5 and the cc-690v5 in rosenut color, Outstanding speakers the sound performance is awesome and the new real wood design will blow you away..... The best speaker I've heard in a long time . Also the cc690v5 is a beast the sound of this massive speaker will make you think that the person is speaking to you right in the room with you.Trust me you can"t go wrong choosing these speakers please demo them for yourself.......

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 09, 2007]
Palmz
Casual Listener

Strength:

Excellent stage, clarity, depth, detail. Rich, and not too bright, yet crisp. Overall value is second-to-none.

Weakness:

Considering price-tag...NONE.

I'm reviewing these for my pops who would never care to share how wonderful his system is. In 2002 I was torn between the studio 80's and Energy's Veritas 2.4's. The Energy's were very bright, but sounded excellent overall. Then I popped into General Audio and heard the 100's connected to a tube amp (I had never yet heard the 80's). WOW! They were simply amazing. To make sure I wasn't seduced by the high-current tube-amp sound, I made them hook the speakers to a higher-end H/K receiver and they still sounded brilliant. We ended up closing the deal with v.2 100's a Studio CC, 4 Studio 20's in the rear and a Servo 15 Sub. The 100's were the beacon of that arrangement.

Since then I got married, and my parents down-sized the house and upgraded the home theater. v.3 100's were a no-brainer. I noticed real improvement in depth with the v.3's despite the excellent sound-stage of the v.2's. The new arrangement now consists of v.3 ADP-470 surrounds, SM-60R in-walls (room is too big for good mounting of Studio 20's), Studio CC-470 v3 Center Channel, and a Signature Servo. As a casual listener he won't believe me that with better amplification - currently a Sherwood 4-965 does it all - he could get so much more out of his set-up, especially the 100's (he thinks they sound heavenly as is).

I've heard better speakers than this. The signature S8's for one, but they were $3000 more. For this price I haven't seen anything come close. If you are considering Veritas-line floorstanders don't bother, despite the fact that they are great. These are superb. I would probably even buy over the 703's from B&W.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 29, 2006]
kc
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

clear and strong .sound guality Ive only heard in higher priced speaker

Weakness:

speaker vaneer is a little much but for money you can get s4

just bought this this month and was amazed at the sound quality .had klipsh and was talked into trying a set 40s was so happy with them tryed the 100s and havent looked back .I havent found a set of speakers that match the sound and guality also the price of the 100s

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jun 09, 2005]
sharpeman
AudioPhile

Strength:

Clarity ability to handled all ranges. Just keep getting better with time.

Weakness:

spikes bit cheesey and laminates but wht can you ask for in this price range. If sound is what you want this is it and priced well

Picked these up at a local retailer. Have them wired to a bryston 4b Rotel RC-972 . These speakers are reaching there 100th hour,and like previous reviews long break in time but worth the wait . Just keep sounding better. Great highs ,mids fantastic ,base is catching up with time.For the money cant be beat,in this price range. Played holly Cole It happened one night superb,handled Norah Jones come away with me,and if you like rocking blues try Jonny Lang Lie To Me These speakers dont miss a beat or note. As you can read happy buyer . Use the bi wireing or bi amp better sound.

Similar Products Used:

JBL L36 Polk monitor 10 Klipsch heresy klipsch kg4 paradigm 9se .

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 31, 2005]
John North
AudioPhile

Strength:

Quality, sound, power handling really top notch.

Weakness:

Price is all that would really stear someone away.

Well I wanted to know what HIGH end speakers were all about, well seems I found out. This speaker is simply amazing, I also got the matching 570 center channel. Really is a step up from the monitor line I had before. Even though I totally enjoyed monitor line. I always longed for something more. Well with $3000 falling into my lap I bought 100's and 570. Clear as a bell, nice ability to play strong and loud. Yet high quality enough to let you hear tiny things most speakers only dream of doing. Not for everyone cause of the price, but really hard to knock something so good for a relative little $$

Similar Products Used:

Entire monitor line, yeah I upgraded several times.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 16, 2005]
WILLIAM C WALDECKER 3RD
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

heavy solidly built. reference quality sound. hard to beat for thier price point. easy on the eyes

Weakness:

extensive break in period

i purchased my 100 v3s in early 2004 at that time i was using a rotel rb 1080 amp. bk avp 2030 pre amp .sony sacd. denon hdcd.i initialy felt the sound was somewhat sterile very clean but not musical the more they were played they very gradully began to open up. i replaced the pre amp with a rotel rc 1090 after the pre burned in the sound improved even more. what i did not realize was that these studio 100s take a very long time to break in. four days ago i became the proud owner of a pair of odyssey khartago monoblocks after two hours of warm up i was nearly floored by the sound coming from the studio 100s i was going to buy a stratos extreme but after i told klaus i owned studio100v3s he said the studios liked high current and recommended the new khartago monos 150 wpc >100 amps current and oh my god! did that man know his stuff! it brought the studios to a whole new level the combination of the two is truly a match made in heaven!the ability to reproduce the sound of symbols'piano'bass have all improved dramaticaly. voices have a sense of realism that is shocking. guitar sounds as if the player was seated in my livingroom i feel that my system in its present configuration could best many systems costing three times as much! i owe thanks to klaus for his broad knowledge of synergy because audio when done right is a form of art!the studio100v3s are extremely responsible transducers capable of capturing the you are there feeling of a live performance and the more i listen the more i like these speakers!i would recommend the studio100v3s or the khartago monos to anyone seeking superior sound without going broke in the proscess. this is my second review on this site and i would like to thank audioreview and its members for allowing me to express my opinions sincerly william c waldecker 3rd

Similar Products Used:

polk audio, boston acoustics, paradigm monitors,jbl

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 18, 2004]
James Robertson
AudioPhile

Strength:

build quality scale of presentation dispersion,Transparency

Weakness:

I dont really love the cosmetics including the plastic cap and the chicken thigh footers. Both kind of look cheep to me. I wish in came in real wood finish. Bass could have a little more weight

These are excellent speakers for the price. They are neutral and like any good speaker they are revealing of everything that is in front of them. I should let you know that for the first 6 months of ownership I was not very happy with them. My system was sounding a bit bloated and warm with lack of detail and I of course blamed the speakers. I was using Monster M series 1.4 biwire speaker cable. I recently purchased NAIM NACA5 speaker cable on audiogon to replace the Monster and this solved everything. The bass has more snap and detail. The treble is way more extended and airy(without sounding bright). There is no longer that bit of colouration and congestion that was bothering me. Imaging and sound staging is hard to fault at this price and the the speakers are much more capable than I first thought. I am now happy, what a relief,how many speakers can someone buy in a lifetime. I will say that the bass could have a little more weight for my taste and larger room (but again this could be from other components). My system is: LINN Sondek LP12, LINN Genki, Bryston BP20P, Bryston 3BSST, Richard Gray 600, Cardas Hexlink 5C(RCA and balanced), NAIM NACA5 If your a music lover on a real life budget you should consider Paradigm.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm 7SE, B&W DM1800, B&W 640i, Magnapan MG1.4, Paradigm Studio 60 V2, KEF Reference 3

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Aug 28, 2004]
ScofieldKid
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

The tweeter is perfect. And if you stick your head right in between the set, you can hear some good sound. I actually thing they are better sounding off-axis.

Weakness:

Mids are good, but can get overloaded. The last octave is missing in action. Bass on these is sub-par. Overall the lack of bass makes them disturbing. But... I'll qualify this by saying 1) I will give them more time to break in, and 2) I will try them in a smaller listening room. I suspect that both of these factors may produce a much more favorable outcome. In the store, I did hear much better bass coming from their demo model, so breakin and room size really could be big issues for these speakers.

So far it's a mixed bag. I'm testing in a very large room, and I have only had about 15-hours of breakin on them. The type of drivers they are using for the bass section are very stiff surrounds, and since they are all 7" diameter, tha'ts another thing to pay close attention to.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Active 20's. (Awesome/Wonderful.) Paradigm 90P's. (Excellent subwoofers, but only a good rating on the highs and mids.)

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jun 25, 2004]
rangeroo22
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Separation,air,three dimensionality,still an INCREDIBLE VALUE!!!Mids to die for,human voice reproduction is on par with much more $$$$ speakers,top is silky smoothe,no sibilance whatsoever at any level. Will play as loud as anyone would like with no issue.Articulate enough to reveal weaknesses upstream, (so give 'em plenty of good CLEAN power. Not necessarily high wattage) Did I mention VALUE!!!!

Weakness:

Bass could be a touch sweeter,not more bass,just differently tuned?

These V3's are alot more refined than the V2's they replaced.Similar sweet mids,top end just seems smoother and much better at "projecting" the sound. I must be careful because of the fact that I've recently changed almost all upstream components in the system since the V3's arrived and I'm certain that has had a tremendous effect on my current setup.In any event the bass is substantially "different" from the V2's. Personally I prefer the bass from the V3's because of the fact that it sounds alot more "controlled" even though I'm now using amps with a much lower damping factor than I used with the V2's. The three dimensionality of the V3's is phoenominal in this $$$ range of speakers.In fact as good as any speakers I've ever had in ANY system in 30+ years of this hobby.(The imaging is certainly due in part to the fact that I'm now running Monarchy SE100 Delux' monoblocks with the V3. Believe me when I repeat something that is often said, but the "synergy" of anyones' sytem is also critical to the end sound reproduction,the right cables,amps,preamps,digital sources,analog sources,power conditioning,etc. All in all I'm EXTREMELY HAPPY with the latest rendition of Paradigms Reference Studio 100!

Similar Products Used:

Dahlquist DQ-10,Paradigm Ref. Studio 100 V2,Legacy Classic,PSB Stratus Gold i,Klipsch various,Vienna Acoustics,(memory is the first thing to go ya know)

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 11  

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