Want to Upgrade Speakers from Paradigm
upgrade the crossovers Upgrade the crossovers Upgrade the crossovers There’s probably no better way to increase the quality over that of a personally owned set of paradigms, than to upgrade the crossovers of the personally owned pair of Paradigms. For me, someone who literally has all the parts around me to do so... I could be done in less than an hour. Yes, I know what the crossover looks like, it’s right here in these images..and it does need an upgrade. Eg, small film bypass caps across the electrolytics and possibly replacement of the smaller valued ones, with all film types. http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/paradigm/1.html They look like some of the last ones that Najeeb designed, before he left Paradigm. (did a few shows with him) He was their chief designer for 9.5 years. |
I live in a small house with an open floor plan where the kitchen, dining and living room are one big room. The stereo is tucked away in a corner at the end of the kitchen cabs. The speakers are only 4'-6" apart on tile floors. The dining table is directly in front of the stereo area. There is a solid slab of marble on the same backwall which is the kitchen backsplash and ends right before the speakers. The room has vaulted ceilings, like a tent. A pretty horrible acoustic situation. I listen mostly at lower volumes (until the wife leaves the house) and at low volumes I miss out on bass and nice details. Really not sure what I would want to improve. |
^^^OMG you could NOT have a worse miss match IMO than hard acoustics & Paradigm speakers... If I were you I would 1: keep the speakers & get a REALLY good headphone system for low volume listening.. 2:Change whatever amp you have to a Sugden A21SE & get a pair of Fritz Carbon 7SE or whatever his latest version is...I just spent 2 WONDERFUL weeks with the A21Signature version(22wpc.) & am now converted away from tubes to Pure Class A Single Ended SS...What sold me most was LOW Volume listening,simply amazing...The Carbon 7SE's are a darkish,very warm signature speaker,it will lighten up in your acoustics & truly shine with the Sugden... |
So I've been reading up on your amplifier.On paper it should provide excellent low volume listening..One thing comes to mind is that it's distortion levels are non existent & the amp may come off as very dry sounding,which is not a good match either with the Paradigms,add in the hard acoustics & IMO you have a sonic disaster.With your DAC/Amp & Acoustics I would really really look at something like the Fritz or something from Sonus Faber..You certainly need a speaker on the rich/warm side of neutral in your situation... |
Thank you Freediver as I kind of suspected what you are telling me: that I have a sonic disaster and acoustic nightmare . My Benchmark dac-amp combo is great especially in this weather. I did have a Pass XA30.8 but the heat input into my small house was ridiculous so I am not going back to Class A. That is why I am rethinking my speakers. |
After Studio 100's versions 1 and 2 then S8's, two preamplifiers and an embarrassing number of amplifiers I realized I'm one of the dumbest hackiest persons here to make a speaker suggestion. If you're able to keep your Paradigm's I'm certain you'll be able to hear their signature house sound by direct comparison. Within the first minutes even my family could hear it. While not as prominent, I heard it in their newest high dollar line. To be fare the used replacements were quite a bit more expensive but its been years since I've spent any significant money on equipment. All the electronics I went through were actually quite good with the replacements. I kept the tubes. Good luck with your journey. |
the small electrolytic capacitors in the crossover might need a 0.1uf to 0.22uf ’bypass’ high grade film capacitor soldered across them. something that does not shift their values by much, if t all. A 4.7uf electrolytic can capacitor would be ’insignificantly’ shifted in it’s total value by a 0.1uf film bypass capacitor, but would behave itself so much better, as a pair, when the signal passes through them. this would get rid of residual bits of slur and noise in the reproduction. Micro-fine edges of transients would be better defined. This is important as humans hear by or via the micro-fine transient aspects of signal. 100% of our hearing is concentrated in this area of the signal. It’s all we hear. The rest is not heard by the ear. This would be realized by your brain and ears in the after of doing so (after modification), as you listen to the very slightly modified speakers. You would relax more into the music as you hear more of it’s micro detail in a more relaxed and easy way. Your hearing and listening technique would take on a more refined and elevated (knowledge wise) track and from then on, your choices would be more informed in what you look/listen for and buy/assemble. You would gain an understanding in one area of minutia of the equation. A critical aspect. Basically... a bit of single cause analysis in a swamp of non-clarity. Critical. 99.99% of audiophiles understand audio gear as a unknown and unfathomable black bag of cats. Gaining any form of knowledge of the minutia of the interior of the bag of cats and how that affects the resulting understanding of the bag of cats..becomes a critical and heretofore unknown data point. Finally, some sort of minimal handle on thing---appears. Basically a minimal form of single cause analysis on why the speakers sound the way they do, as a single cause change has been actuated. The result of this is positive, in the given experimenter’s future. A hair more knowing in a world of bags of cats. Biggest quality and quantitative change in the desired direction, for a few hundred dollars at most, and no ten thousand dollars plus spent, to get there. An equation with no downsides that are remotely worth mentioning or dealing with. If one looks at the audio world clearly, they might realize that almost any given thread and almost any given comment by the mjaority of participants, are invariably unknown black bag of cats question and answer sets. Unknowing retorts on the results when arranging and shuffling around and connecting together said black bags of cats. All coming from nowhere and going to nowhere. A truth, it is.... but it is difficult to mention in polite company. Next domino to fall: the more successful marketing.... is designed around such. |
