The array of streaming options built into a/v products continues to grow with the announcements that Vudu will become available in Panasonic Blu-ray players and Hulu Plus in Sony products.
If you want to see the future of Paradigm's Signature line, take a closer look at the 30th anniversary speakers shipping soon including the Tribute tower and Inspiration monitor. The wood veneer enclosures, a Paradigm first, will probably trickle down to Signature and the woofers come from the existing Signature. Shipping has been pushed from December 2012 to February 2013 and the originally envisioned limited run of 400 units may be increased though not much.
Paradigm is greeting its 30th anniversary with two extraordinary limited-edition speakers, the monitor-size Inspiration (only 300 to be made) and the Tribute tower (only 200 to be made). The camera flash made their dark gloss cherry enclosures gleam red though under ordinary lights they were duskier. Under the surface are seven layers of medium-density fiberboard. The tweeters are pricey beryllium and the seven-inch woofers are C-PAL carbon-anodized pure aluminum. The demo featuring the tower wowed us with awesome, effortlessly extended bass, sweet tangy brass, and a close-up and personal vocal perspective. While a companion center was not shown, there's probably something suitable in the Reference line, so there's no reason not to contemplate using these babies in a surround system. The monitor and tower ship in late October for $1299/each and $2999/each respectively. Get 'em while you can.
It wasn't until I uncrated both the Paradigm Cinema 330 speakers and the Harman/Kardon AVR 340 receiver that I realized I'd found something rare in the home theater realm—a visual match between speakers and receiver. Did some invisible hand simultaneously guide Paradigm's whizzes in Toronto and Harman/Kardon's design squad in Northridge, California? These two large companies have no connection that I know of. Yet, this month's Spotlight System is a genuine fusion of Canadian and Californian design sensibilities.
Perhaps it was just a matter of time before Paradigm employed the term Paradigm Shift to describe a new product line. In this case it's also a new marketing approach that adds online, direct, and other retail channels to the traditional a/v retailers who have always been Paradigm's mainstay. Say hello to the A² Active Atom, a powered version of our old friend, the world-beating Atom satellite. As you can see, it streams Apple-style. The one shown was a working engineering sample. Paradigm also showed the Millennium LP on-wall and mentioned head transducers including four earbuds, two headphone models, and two gaming headphone models.
The Paradigm Millenia CT system is a smaller 2.1-channel version of the amazing-sounding MilleniaOne 5.0 sat/sub set, which earned a rave from us when we reviewed it rather late in the game. What appears to be a single module in the pic is actually an Apple TV box sitting atop a similarly proportioned Paradigm module which accepts input from both Apple TV and your optical-digital signal source of choice. Amplification is in the sub. Pricing is $699 with sub; there is also a larger MilleniaOne CT at the same price without sub. Both ship September. Paradigm also showed a Soundtrack 2.1-channel soundbar ($799, shipping October) with two one-inch aluminum tweeters, two 4.5-inch mid-woofers, two passive radiators, and outboard eight-inch side-firing sub.
The Paradigm Seismic 110 sub has a rounded top, and to complement the Millenia Series speakers, a diecast chassis. And it makes the best picture. But the Paradigm subs that will really raise eyebrows are the marginally less photogenic Sub 12 ($1999) and Sub 15 ($2999), each of which has dual 800-watt amps and dual voice coils driving a single cone. Why? More output, better control, less distortion. And there's USB input for fine tuning via the Perfect Bass Kit.
Approximately 87 percent of all speaker models introduced at the show were from Paradigm. Bill VanderMarel shows off the new Signature line with beryllium tweeter. Even more significant, to me, is the fourth-gen revision of the Studio line--the second-gen Studio/20 happens to be my longtime reference speaker--with the aluminum tweeter upgraded to a better one and the polymer woofer giving way to satin-anodyzed aluminum. Highlight of the revised Monitor series is a new and larger version of Paradigm's classic budget bookshelf model, the Titan. Millenia is the new "lifestyle" line, and there are in-walls galore.
Paradigm introduced two new speaker lines, one for the home theatrically inclined, one for two-channel. The Millennia LP XL on-wall speaker ($699/each) handled the front channels with the LP 2 ($499/each) handling the surrounds. The whole system, but especially the dual Monitor SUB 10s, benefitted from Paradigm's homegrown ARC room correction in the MRX 710 receiver. The climactic scene of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit sounded as if it were playing through a much larger speaker system. Then we got an earful of the new Prestige line, which includes three towers and a monitor. The tower playing was the Prestige 85 F tower ($3999/pair and up depending on finish). This 2.5-way model's PPA tweeter uses a phase aligned lens that improves not only phase but output. While the k.d. lang and Boz Scaggs tracks sounded pretty upfront in the upper midrange, they also had a delicious lower midrange richness, underpinned by tight but extended bass. Both series are worth a demo if you have the chance. Incidentally, Paradigm continues to manufacture in North America, in Mississauga, Ontario.
Also new from Paradigm are the in-wall PCS80SQ and in-ceiling PCS ADR, $299/each. I didn't get a chance to hear them but it's encouraging that Paradigm designed rack-mount amps especially for them, including the 300-watt X300 and 850-watt X850. My colleagues have already covered the 3000-watt Signature Sub 25, with its three-inch woofer excursion, but I thought I'd throw in a rear shot. Note the USB input which facilitates mic measurement, because if there's one component in your system you really need to dial in right away, it's the sub!