Bass, Soundstage, Detail, Mids/Highs..everything..

Absolutely nothing..it can reveal terrible electronics

I had done my homework on this speaker for about 6 months before I actually purchased it and it did not disappoint one bit. I had compared this to all the above mentioned brands before settling on the paradigm. The paradigms highs and mids were absolutely great and the blend it presents with the bass extension makes for a near perfect soundstage. For the price, you cannot possibly find a better speaker in terms of anything really. The bass extension on these absolutely destroyed my old Cerwin Vega 15" in terms of how low it could go and tightness. The only real drawback as noted in the summary is that you need solid electronics, especially a good amp to drive these right. I am running a Citation 7.1 and it doesn't disappoint. I have demoed all the above mentioned speaker types against it with the same sources and the paradigms just kept coming out on top. THE ONLY SPEAKER MENTIONED THAT BEAT IT WAS THE B&W 802. That speaker runs about $8k however! The aerial 8t were pretty close however, but the $5000 JMLAB Electra 920 didn't touch it. With the same electronic sources, the paradigm's richness of mids/highs blew it away, however the bass response was comparable.
All and all, this is a fabulous speaker and I will recommend that anyone who purchases one to spend the extra cash and get the good wood w/veneer top. It looks a lot better and may add some sonic benefit as well. For value, it deserves a 7 or 8, but I can only give it a 5, for overall sound, it deserves a 5 easily (I have only given one 5 ever before). My hats are off to paradigm as they have managed to make a solid audiophile level speaker at a fraction of their competitors cost. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

My equipment:

Citation 5.0/7.1 pre-amp/amp
Sony 550D DVD player
Cardas Cross interconnects
Cardas Microtwin Interconnects
Infinity Reference rears
Infinity Sterling Series Center
Tara Labs RSC Prime 1000 speaker cable (10' pair)
Paradigm Studio Reference 100's

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus 802/803/804; Martin Logan Electrostatics; Klipsch; Aerial; JMLAB Electra 915/920...and many others..

detailed highs,tuneful extended bass

lower midrange boxiness,quality control

My Studio 100 V.2 came miswired at the binding posts & after a great deal of threatening & emailing the rep finally came out & rewired them.Then after a long breakin period(300 hours) things stated to sound a little more respectable.I then discovered that one speaker sounded grainy & bright compared to the other.Having gone through the obvious combinations & permutations to rule out associated equipment,room placement etc. & being essentially ignored by Paradigm,I am forced to sell them as HT boom boxes at a considerable loss.My advice is to stick to companies like PSB,B&W & JMlabs who have better quality control & customer service
Associated Equipment

Parasound C/DP 1000
Moon I-5
Tara labs Prism IC
Audioquest Indigo cables
Adcom ACE 515 AC conditoner on a dedicated 15 amp hospital grade plug circuit

bass, superb imaging, but a very sweet midrange

size, needs lots of power, almost too revealing at times, but only a problem with badly recorded cd's

I bought these 1 year ago, and everything I have done since (MSB111 Link) and DHLabs Q-10 speaker cables has just made them sound better. I strongly recommend a powerful amp, a good quality cd or processor and bi-wire. I had 5000$ to buy any speakers I wanted, and while I checked a lot of sound rooms and found better midrange or tweeters I liked more, these were the only speakers that could play everything well. They do reflect the components however, and for me the MSB link made them sound so much better!
A truly fantastic speaker, with one of the sweetest midrange's I have ever heard! Break-in takes a while, and placement is important. These are the 100v2 models.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 901's were last speakers, no comparison!!!!!!

The Paradigm 100`s mids,highs and lows all sound fantastic.

Speaker covers keep loosening up and poor craftmanship on some spots of the wood finish

I purchased the 100`s about four months ago.Three weeks prior to my purchase my friend bought a demo pair of the 100`s from the same store already broken in.When we left the shop with my speakers the salesman commented on how my speakers wouldn`t sound as good as my buddies speakers when I got them home.WOW!Was he right.The manual says to break them in for a few hours,but it should say to break them in for a few hundred hours.After 300 hours plus,I found these speakers to be very enjoyable at all sound levels and never tire of them.For music I don`t use the sub anymore, but for movie soundtracks the sub gives that extra punch for that large scale realism.The mini monitors are now my rear surround speakers.My Home theatre system has never sounded better.

Similar Products Used:

Monitor Audio MK7/M+K MX100 sub,Polk SDA 2A,Magnaplanar 1.4,

Detailed highs, smooth mids, deepfast slammin' base.

Zero, notta, nothing.

There is nothing that I can say that hasn't already been said, Paradigm has it together. I was in the market for new speakers for about 6 months and beeing the penny pincher that I have to be because this is just entertainment as my wife says. I paid $2400.cdn and I've listened to other speakers in the same price range and the Studio 100s just ate them up. The closest thing that came close were a pair of B&Ws $5000.cnd and the Paradigms still smoked them. These speakers can sing some awesome blues, play the lowest stand up bass notes in jazz, play huge dynamic passages of classical and man can they rock. They took quite a while to break in so if your thinkihg of buying these speakers be patient. Quality cables are a must. These speakers can only play the signal they receive, if you play a quality recording, you will receive quality sound, but on the other hand if you feed them a crap recording you will get crap sound. Like I said they will reveil only the signal that they receive.

Paradigm take a bow.

Paradigm Reference Studio 100s v2
Cambridge Audio D500 cd player
Cambridge Audio C500 pre amp
Citation 24 amp
Transparent MusicWave Bi-wire speaker cable
Transparent MusicLink interconnects

Similar Products Used:

There is nothing similar out there at this price

Finish, sound stage, range

This is an update to my previous review now that I have had about 6 months to play with these Studio 100 v.2.

I've since added the Studio center and matching rear ADPs. Fantastic!

Set up:
Denon 3801 AVR
Denon DCM370 CD
Studio 100v.2 mains, cc and ADP rear

As the system has broken in, the sound is warmer and just a joy to listen to. No weaknesses worthy of note. Plan to add Studio 40s to fill out the rear.

Am still playing around with cables and auditioned some Audioquest products (was using Monster). After lots of research into what makes a good cable. Apparently the fewer strands (solid wire is better), higher gauge, higher purity and better isolation of the strand, the better. So I tried an experiment. I bought some single strand 12 guage 600V electrical wire. Most of the six9 cable on the market uses around 16 to 20 guage. According to data on the net, the 12 guage 95% pure copper should have the same conductivity as the 16 to 20 pure stuff. I wrapped 4 strands around some polyethylene tube (important to get lots of wraps or turns to minimize inductance). I made two cables of 10ft for about $10 and biwired both mains. I'm now going to do the center. It kicks! The sound stage is incredible! After spending the bucks for my system I should probably just buy some higher end stuff, but I like to tinker. Anyway, I haven't heard any better cable as of this note.

These speakers are worth the money.

Strength? Yes you need a lot of it to get these in the door!
Seriously, these are some of the best speakers in this price range, the bass is tight and clean, the craftsmanship is top notch.
that you can get.

Long break in period (100 hours give or take) but it helps
me get reacquainted with all my old cd's so that really isn't
a weakness is it?

I got these from LiveWire Audio in Windsor Canada and I'd like to thank Steve Huff from Demotte, IN in his review for giving me the hint to go up there, because I not only saved a lot of money on them due to the preferential exchange rate right now, but found one of the most helpful salespeople I've encountered in a long time, Bob Latremouille, talk to him, he's great!
Anyways, I've owned a pair of 9SE's for a long time (6 or 7 years?) and have come to expect quite a bit from Paradigm after all these years and did they ever deliver on these.
I only have about 50 hours or so on them and I think they sounded great right out of the box, but after they hit about 40 or so hours I noticed a huge change in them in their soundstaging and especially in the bass and vocals. I'm used to the long break in period on Paradigm's from my past experience with them, so I wasn't particularly concerned about it, I knew they'd come through.
If I had to give them a negative (and I'd have to be forced)
is that the spikes for the feet were missing from the boxes (looks like the factory put the glue down for the little boxes I'd have assumed they'd have been in but all that was there was glue...) but again, Bob from Livewire audio comes through and is sending me replacements.
The fit and finish are top notch for this price level (I got the black laminate models) and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a speaker in this price range (I won't say how much I paid for them, I'll let you work that out with Bob, but I will tell you that the us/canadian dollar exchange rate is about $1 Can = .65 US so for example if you take the list price of $2250 x .65 you get $1465 and change and you get refunded both of the taxes so they are essentially tax free!)

Equipment used:
Rotel RA-985 bxII
Rotel RCD-930
Monster M2.4 BiWire Speaker cables
Straightwire MusicCable II Interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm 9SE and Paradigm Monitor 70p's

SWEET EAR CANDY! THE MUSIC GODS HAVE BLESSED THIS SPEAKER. THE BEST SPEAKER IN ANY PRICE CLASS. PINCH ME I MUST BE DREAMING! GO GET YOURS BEFORE THIS DREAM IS OVER!!!!!!!!

Beautiful sound without coloration

They weigh a ton.

I purchased these speakers based on the reviews that I read in the audio magazines and on this web site. I am not disappointed. Everyone was right; these speakers are a pleasure to listen to. The fact that they are realitively inexpensive only increases the pleasure that they provide. I was originally in the market for B&W speakers, which I still think are excellent. The problem was that I was not convinced that anything less than the N802s had what I was looking for in terms of bass extension and overall sound. The $8000 price tag on the N802s was more than just a little out of my price range at the time (and still is for that matter). One final note: When I first purchased the Paradigms, I was using Rotel gear. I kept waiting for the Paradigms to "break in." The bass seemed thin. I then traded the Rotel preamp (RC1090) and amp (RB1080) in for Bryston gear. Man, what a difference. With the Brystons, the bass kicks me in the chest, and the overall sound is greatly improved. Do not underestimate the quality of this speaker.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Boston Acoustics

FLAT RESPONSE,GREAT BASS AND CRISP

THE PARADIGM STUDIO 100, V. 1.0 SOUNDED SMOOTHER AND MORE ACCURATE THEN THE OTHERS. I HAVE LISTENED TO MANY SPEAKERS AND THESE SEEMED SUPPIOR.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 803 & 604, DEFINITIVE BP30,2002