Paradigm and Revel

Isn’t the term "hater" a bit of an immature simplification? I owned Revel M106 speakers since they first came out, replacing PSBs. I was enamored with their smoothness and coherence. Got the itch to upgrade after a year, looking for a bigger and more exciting sound. Listened to the 206s and 208s but just wasn’t satisfied, they sounded like bigger 106s, but not that much different except for of course the better low end response. In a word, for me, they were boring. A friend had 208s as well, and I listed at his house with a very different electronics setup, but it was still the same. He also felt they were a bit of a bore to listen to. I listened to many speakers and settled on ATCs. Before the Revels my friend had Paradigms and found them a bit bright as well, but he is somewhat sensitive to brightness, and certainly system matching makes a difference. Nonetheless Paradigm makes very good speakers. My friend ended up going from the 208s to Focal Sopras. Huge difference, for the better. However, just to be clear, they are all fine speakers if they fit your tastes and are a good system match.

Well I guess you could apply this "boring" theory to many aspects of life-- books, favorite foods, etc. But one needs to avoid over-generalizing, and thinking that everyone thinks alike. I've tried many components in my system, and just cause they were new or different didn't make them better, although some were not inexpensive. And I have some components that have never bored me, and I will probably never get rid of. With the Revels, I was not satisfied, no matter what their lab results say, or even though one of the most famous speaker designers around (KV) was involved. I respect and appreciate Revels for what they are, but would never own them again.