Great highs (detailed and extended)
Great bass with authority
Very Good mids (slightly forward......only a touch forward in small rooms)

Terrible out of the box

I paid $3000 for these speakers with the rosenut wood veneer side panels (a 20% discount off retail). Before you choke on your ham sandwich, I am referring to Aussie dollars. Having waited 9 (that's bloody correct, 9) months for them to arrive from Canada, I thought "they better be good!". Fortunately, the local distributor held the original price for me while the value of our dollar dived sharply and the local price of these speakers had gone up 30% during those 9 (bloody 9) months of waiting. I connected the spikes (added grease) and off the 80s went into my system. Adios El Cheapo KEF Coda 8's (good intro speakers though)!

Initially, the Studio 80s were terrible! Harsh! The pain! I knew they needed a good break in. After about 15 hours I noticed a big improvement. They were great after about 30 hours. There were no ssss.....ssss....sounds. Whatever was recorded was dished out. They definitely require a large room. Too much energy for a 3 x 5 metre room. This was my response to stereo listening.

Note: The Studio CC is a superb centre speaker. A bigger surprise than the Studio 80s. The initial prison scene with Bruce Willis whispering in 12 monkeys was very interesting. It sounded as if BW was in the room with me! Great centre!

System:

Paradigm Studio 80v2 (1 pair)
Paradigm Studio CC
Yamaha RX-V1 receiver
Rotel RB993 3 channel power amp
Toshiba SD200E DVD player with optical feed
Sony CD player (...930... I forget the letters) with analogue feed
Studio 40v2 for rear speakers (no rears now....future!)
DIY cables (pseudo balanced)

Very rich and accurate reproduction. Warm sound and excellent imaging.

I have the Studio 100 v2 speakers and nowhere to post a review. In any case I have tried the Studio 60s as well and those darnd feet are just a nusence to adjust.

The 100's are great. Very Large.. creating marital problems.. but in my HT they sound great. Music reproduction is the best I have heard at this price point. They are quite heavy and not terrible beautiful but they do sound good. Solid cabinets can be placed close to the wall adn still image nicely.

If you are considering the 80's go have a listen to the 100's. They have much better bass reproduction and take up the same floor space. These are power hungery monsters and I recommend at least 100 Watts of very clean power I consider my B&K sutable but 200 or more watts may be desireable in a large room.

System is: B&K AVR 307, Philips Q50 DVD, Studio 100v2 Front, Studio CC Center, Studio ADP surrounds and the Servo 15 Sub.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 802, Studio 60, Martin Logan

Soundstage and clear consistant sound from highs to lows and don't forget the exceptional mids!

at this price none...

Out of all the speakers i've listned to, these ones where outstanding! I even prefered them over the 100s. I found that the studio 100 where lacking something compared to these. (also saved some money) but price was not the issue between the two.

One thing I noticed with these speakers though is what goes in comes out. I first had them hooked up to my DVD player with low end tributary cables. (what a disapointment from the audio shop). So make sure if you get them you use them with the proper equipment.

Current system:

Pioneer Elite VSX-09TX
Rotel RCD-970BX
Toshiba sd-2200 DVD
Nakamichi Dr8
Paradigm studio 80v2
Paradigm studio CC
Paradigm studio 20 for the rear
Homegrownaudio Silver Lace Interconnects
Cardas speaker cables.

Similar Products Used:

b&w, monitor 9, studio 100

true bass great for rock & roll

long break in time

at this price these are the best sound out there i looked
for two years before i herd anything better then polk 10
when i found these i had to have a pair.

Similar Products Used:

polk mon 10b

Warm sounding, Clean base, Price, Good variety of speaker colours

None

Before buying these speakers, my brother and I went around listening to different speakers to replace my fronts in my home theater. I wanted speakers that would not only sound accurate listening to jazz, classical guitar and latin music, but also sound great in my home theater.


After auditioning several well known brands I decided to put B&W and Paradigm at the top of my list. Specifically the finalist were B&W DM603 S3 and Paradigm Reference Studio 80's. The main things that attracted me to these speakers were the build of speaker, quality and price.


Let me tell you after reviewing these two speakers, there is no way that the B&W DM603's can even stand beside Studio 80's performance. The Studio 80's produce well defined sound both on highs and mids ... no problems driving a variety of music. It also produces clean and clear base with a kick unlike B&W DM603's that lack of bass(Studio 80's go down to 27Hz and B&W DM603's go down to 40Hz). I don't even need to use my sub when listening to music with these speakers.


The 603's cost about $1625 CDN and Studio 80's about $1500 CDN. There is no way B&W DM603's are worth paying that price ... even Paradigm Monitor 9 at $850 CDN were better sounding then B&W DM603's.


The Paradigm Reference Studio 80's come in four colours and in either laminate or wood(need to pay extra for this option) Personally I had a hard time choosing between Rosenut and Light Cherry. I ended up choosing Light Cherry because it matched my listening room floors and furniture.


To sum things up, Paradigm Reference Studio 80's are fantastic speakers and are easy winners in any audio enthusiast and/or audiophiles listening room. You definitely won't regret buying these baby's!


Note:
These speakers need at least 35 hours of break in time (other have said 100 hours) before you truly can hear what they can do. If you are lucky, the dealer you are auditioning the speakers at have theirs broken in already.

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM602 S3, B&W DM603 S3, Paradigm Monitor 9

Exceptional sonics and neutrality at all frequencies.

None so far.

Initially, I had planned to purchase the Monitor 9s and listened to them at a local dealer. At once, I noticed a boxy coloration of the sound. I then wanted to hear the Reference Studio series speakers and there was no comparison. The Reference series were much more articulate and I heard far less coloration if any.

These speakers replaced a pair of Advent Tower Prodigy speakers which had great difficulty producing low frequencies in my listening room. With the Studio 80 V2s, low frequencies are produced effortlessly. Highs and mids are superb. There is so much detail and foundation that was not readily apparent with my old speakers and speaker cables. The soundstage wide and deep. Imaging is accurate. As these speakers break in (50-plus hours so far)they sound better and better.

System:

Musical Fidelity A3 Integrated
Nakamichi ZX-9 Casstte Deck
Denon DCM-460 CD Player
Marantz DR-6000 CR recorder
Paradigm Reference Studio 80 v2 speakers
Concept 2QD Turntable w/ Ortofon Super OM-20 Cartridge
Audioquest Slate bi-wire speaker cables
Audioquest Topaz & Monster m550I interconnects

great,great sound

none so far

just buy the studio 80's & you won't regret.

Everything

are you kidding me?

These speakers are the real deal. These speakers are no joke if you like real Music, pure Music, these speakers are the ones for you.Nothing and i mean nothing at this price range or over this price range can beat these speakers. Also they look real rich looking with real wood. Excellent speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Nothing, maybe the Studio 100's and 4000 dollar speakers that real good.

Excellent sound reproduction,clarity,bass,mid,highs

Heavy

I did approximately 6 months of research prior to purchasing the studio 80's in rosenut veneer.They are still being broken in and are getting better and better.It is amazing to be able to hear them actually getting better and better. I purchased these at livewire audio in windsor canada after rreading a review on this site. To say the least I saved a significant amount of money ($700) by driving to canada. They are $2000 speakers in the states with tax and I got them in canada for $1250 (U.S.) tax free. Since they are a canadian made product they are duty free , you get all taxes back. I auditioned many speakers prior to deciding on these. Build quality is excellent as well as being a attractive speaker. I believe a speaker should look like a fine piece of furniture.Bi-wire these speakers and you will be amazed.DEFINITELY the best buy available today in the sub $2500 price range.

Similar Products Used:

Old RTR speakers purchased in high school

Excellent midrange, highs and bass.

none

How good are these speakers? Stereophile has never reviewed them neither has Absolute Sound. Why? Studio 80's brother speakers, the 100's, and the 20's, have been reviewed by Stereophile receiving a B and C respectively. Absolute Sound has reviewed the Studio 100. The 80's are even preferred by some people. The Paradigm Studio 80's will blow the Acoustic Research AR1, Vandersteen 2Ce-Signature, Theil CS5, PSB Stratus Bronze and NHT 2.5i away and these speakers above are all highly rated. Audio Review, which get reviews from the most important people, the consumers, rates the Studio 80's and the 80V over all these speakers. If you are not convinced, go listen to each one of them and hear for yourself. Paradigm Studio 80's and is a B-rated speakers or a borderline C going into B.

Similar Products Used:

Joseph Audio, Hales Design and bass almost as good as Dunlevy