Paradigm 60-SM Rock Monitor Speaker System Review

Introduction

Living in Florida affords me the advantage of partaking in outdoor activities pretty much all year around, that is, when I can stand the heat. While the weather starts to cool during the fall season, I find myself spending more time outdoors strolling the neighborhood with my children, stargazing at night, or just chilling outside with some meat on the grill. Lately it’s become a requirement of mine to take my music with me when hanging outdoors. Perhaps this is because I rarely have enough time indoors to enjoy so at least I have an excuse outside to listen as I vegetate. Perusing Paradigms website, I discovered their new Rock Monitor series outdoor speakers that not only offered various finishes, one of which just happened to blend well with my house, but were incidentally perhaps one of the most aesthetically pleasing and unobtrusive outdoor speakers I have seen to date. With another 70 deg F day upon me, I figured it would be a good measure for me to request a review sample. After all, I should looking out for my fellow Audioholics any moment I get, bringing them reviews of the coolest stuff I just happen to stumble upon, even while I am selfishly leaning more towards the pure recreational enjoyment of the product right?

The Design

The Paradigm 60-SM Rock Monitors have the appearance of a single driver design if you peer at the driver impression on the front baffle. There are no visible hole cut-outs for a tweeter. This is of course not the case as these speakers do in fact have two 1” titanium tweeters coaxially mounted and centrally positioned above the 6 ½” polypropylene cone cast woofer both of which fire at 30 degree angles in opposite direction or 60 degrees apart from each other. The SM-60’s sport a 2^nd order electro-acoustic crossover system centered at 3kHz and boast an on-axis frequency response of 66Hz to 20kHz +-2dB.

The enclosure is a sealed design so no critters or water can penetrate the cabinet. The grill covers are stainless steel so no rusting will happen over time and, according to Paradigm, the poly glass mineral filled enclosures feature self-draining "rock" fissures making them weather, water, and UV-resistant, even under adverse weather conditions such as what we have in Florida. The 60-SMs come in three finishes: Northeastern Granite, Western Sandstone (my review units) and Fieldstone.

Set-Up

For my equipment, I used the zone 3 output of my Yamaha RX-V2700 receiver fed to two channels of my Emotiva MPS-1. The source was the Yamaha MusicCAST MCX-2000 and the cables were 10AWG from Bluejeans with a Speakercraft volume control located near the front door inside of my home.

There are basically four ways to setup these speakers:

• Single Speaker (L+R) Stereo Wired; Fig 1
• Stereo pair (Left / Right) Mono Wire; Fig 2
• Multiple Speakers (L+R) Stereo Wired; Distributed (4 or more); Fig 3
• Multiple Speakers (Left/Right) Mono Wired; Distributed (4 or more); Fig 4

Unless otherwise noted, most of my testing was done as stereo pair mono wired (see Figure 2). I tried wiring them as a stereo pair dual wired to each channel like I did with the Boston Acoustics Voyager RK62T rock speakers, but I didn’t feel there were audible benefits other than a slight increase in output volume and all it did was add further demand on the amplifiers by halving the load impedance. In addition, Paradigm doesn’t even mention this option in their user manual so I stuck to their four recommendations depicted in this illustration only.

Figure 1 is optimal for small listening areas where only a single speaker can be utilized but still provide stereo imaging. Figure 2 is preferred if the installation can accommodate two speakers as it provides broader coverage and better stereo separation. Figures 3 and 4 depict installations of 4 or more speakers are distributed in a large listening area while the latter configuration is the ultimate solution for wide stereo imaging and if the installer wants to get fancy, they can even configure for surround sound. Imagine getting 5 of these rock speakers, a few subs, a projector screen and display and some lawn chairs for some outdoor viewing that all of your neighbors could enjoy too. Hmm, perhaps I need to start building a collection of rock speakers!

I prewired the front of the Audioholics Showcase home for four speakers in the front yard; two by the front of the house in the landscaped area to provide coverage to people walking on the sidewalk, and two by the front porch to cover the sitting area and front entrance. I installed the 60-SMs in the landscaped areas directly off the front wall of the house about 20 feet apart.

Because of their smallish size and very natural looking design, the 60-SMs truly blended seamlessly into my landscaping. I found that once I fired them up most people walking buy couldn’t locate where the sound was coming from. One of my neighbors commented that he wished he had that quality of sound in his own home, let alone his front yard. I was a bit concerned about all of the attention they were getting once I unveiled their location that I opted to install the supplied security stake and cables. Using a rubber mallet and an old piece of concrete I had laying in the garage, I pounded down the stake all the way into the ground once the wire was looped through the loophole in the speaker cabinet. I rested well that night knowing that the rocks were anchored down. It isn’t everyday that I leave a pair of $500 speakers outdoors, at least the Paradigms were somewhat secure do to their incognito design and stake grounding scheme.

Editorial Note on Wiring:

I unfortunately took my prewiring of my home to the extreme by running all 10AWG speaker wires to every location. This made it quite a challenge to connect in wall volume controls as well as self containing the wires in junction boxes. A note to installers and audiophiles alike, you’re better off running 14/4 for redundancy and better flexibility. You can parallel them to yield an effective resistance of 11AWG. Paradigm provided standard wire nuts you get when buying ceiling fans or electronic fixtures. As an added precaution, I also used electrical tape in conjunction with the wire-ties to ensure total isolation and reduce the chances of oxidation from being outdoors.

60-SM Listening Tests

I was fortunate to receive two pairs of some of the industries coolest rock speakers at the same time for review; the Boston Acoustics Voyager RK6T2s and the Paradigm Rock Monitor 60-SMs. While they aren’t exactly in the same price or size class, they are of similar design and function and both products proved to exceed my expectations of what speakers of this genre could deliver sonically. I spent several weeks listening to these speakers, soaking them with plenty of sun shine and letting the Florida rain pour down on them during our frequent storms. Over the time period my enjoyment of the listening sessions never faltered on either product. Both were clearly proving their “weather resistant” capabilities weren’t just a buzz word but an actual reality.

CD: Larry Carlton & Lee Ritenour

I had this CD in my collection for a number of years but never added it to my reference set list until recently. This is one well recorded CD by two of the industries finest guitarists. I started with Track #1 “Crosstown Kids” and began turning the volume up. The Paradigm 60-SMs were rocking right from the get-go as evident by the clear delineation between Lee Ritenoir’s and Larry Carlton’s guitars I was hearing. There was plenty of reverb and decay in their instruments giving you that “live” sound experience and the bass was pronounced, deep and tight. While the 60-SMs didn’t sound quite as grand as the RK6T2s nor have nearly as much low-end bass extension, they seemed a bit more focused in their delivery. I heard very good imaging and stereo separation typically only found in competently designed bookshelf speakers. When I stood up and walked around my yard, the sound was very consistent as long as long as I was between the two speakers. To increase the listening area, I could really appreciate the benefit of pairing four of these speakers mono wired as in Figure 4. Placing the speakers up against the wall of my house did help with bass reinforcement a bit and they certainly looked great positioned there.

I tried track #3 “L.A.Underground” to see just how loud I could play these speakers before they bottomed out. Many of the speakers in our last face-off article would choke on this song at loud listening levels. The 60-SMs never bottomed and took the power from my Emotiva MPS-1 quite well. At extremely loud listening levels I started to hear woofer strain and compression, but this was at levels I’d never sustain in my yard unless I was having a block party for which these speakers (nor any rock speakers for that matter) are intended to be used for.

CD: Steely Dan – Two Against Nature

I like to listen to pretty much any album from Steely Dan while outdoors working on the yard, but Two Against Nature tickled my fancy this day. Track #7 “Cousin Dupree” showed me just what the 60-SMs were capable of: clean dynamic sound that didn’t draw attention to itself but instead filled the area like a good outdoor speaker should. The vocals were tonally neutral, not sounding overly bright or recessed, while the highs were detailed and clean. I typically skip over Track #9 “West of Hollywood” as it isn’t a particular favorite of mine, but I was really digging this tune outside while listening to it on the Paradigms. The high hats in this track had a good bite to them without sounding overly bright. The Paradigms sonic deliverance persuaded me to veg out and enjoy the rare cold front we were having on this particular weekend making me realize it was days like these that really make it worth living in Florida. When I hear music playing outside, I typically don’t analyze the sonic attributes but the Paradigms caused me to raise my expectations and take notice.

CD: Genesis – 2007 North American Tour Boston, MA

About a year ago, long time progressive rock band Genesis announced their coming together to play a “selection of shows” in Europe and North America. Fans like myself, still glowing from the news, rushed out to buy their tickets and sure enough all of the shows sold out. Sadly, they didn’t tour in my neck of the woods, but they did make all of their concerts available in a two box CD set straight from the mixing boards. I picked up a copy of their September 11, 2007 performance in Boston mostly because my brother attended that show and also because that was the location of their first tour in the USA over 30 years ago. I loaded the first disc into my player and as I began putting up the Christmas lights, I listened while I worked. The opening of “Firth of Fifth” exploded with a brief drum solo which had loads of reverb and sounded live. The fact I was listening outdoors only exaggerated this effect which I was really digging especially when standing 8ft up on my ladder hanging icicle lights on my roof. The 60-SMs did quite admirably when I turned up the volume filling my front yard with the sounds of one of the best progressive rock bands of all time. The instrumentals from “In the Cage” caused me to take a break from my work and stand in attention. Despite the fact I wasn’t listening to the speakers front and center, they still did a great job of filling my area with ambient sound all around. I found within the time frame of listening to both CD’s I got the majority of my Christmas lights up and the time literally flew by from the pure fun I was having listening to some of my favorite tunes on respectable speakers outdoors.

60-SM Measurements and Analysis

Impedance / Phase Measurements of the Paradigm 60-SM

The single wired impedance of the Paradigm 60-SMs is roughly 8 ohms while the two wired impedance is (as expected) ½ of that – 4 ohms. These speakers are a tad more reactive than the Boston Acoustics RK6T2s I previously reviewed, maintaining a +30/-45 degree phase within the entire audio spectrum though never below 4 ohms (two wire connection) at any frequency. This demonstrates deliberate and careful crossover design to ensure these speakers will work well with a wide variety of amplifiers. I still recommend using only the single wired connection to a common amplifier output since I found very little sonic benefits of running them dual wired to each amplifier channel and it only needlessly stresses that particular amplifier more than it needs to. Reserve the two wired connection scheme as per the installation diagrams provided by Paradigm previously mentioned in this review.

In Room Nearfield Frequency Response (1/12^th octave smoothed) of the Paradigm 60-SM

I measured these speakers in the Audioholics showcase theater room placed on the floor with the mic 1 ft away and up slightly above the acoustical center of the speaker. The results were generally very good, with a -3dB point roughly around 60Hz and measuring +-3dB from 100Hz to 10kHz (ignoring the 1.2kHz dip which is likely a measurement anomaly). Though my measurement shows a slight recession in the mid frequencies, I didn’t find the vocals to be too laid back but instead perhaps lacked a bit of body when directly compared against the more expensive RK-6T2s. As you can see, the two wired connection did yield an increase in SPL output at the same given volume control level but I would again caution the user to stick with the single wire connection per amplifier channel or follow the manufacturers alternative connection schemes that best suite your application. To get some additional bass impact, I recommend placing these speakers against the wall of your house but of course do listening tests before deciding on their final location and staking them into the ground.

60-SM Conclusion

The Paradigm 60-SM Rock Monitors are all around solid performers, providing better sound than you might expect from such a conspicuous little package that happens to blend beautifully into almost any outdoor setting. While I sometimes found myself craving a bit more bass extension and dynamics, I couldn’t falter their limitations based on their physical size as I don’t believe it possible to get any more sound out of such a small footprint. In the future, I’d love to see Paradigm offer some matching rock or boulder type subwoofers to supplement these little gems but for now I will just have to settle for a pair of decorative rocks that double as good sounding eye candy. If you are yearning to take your music outdoors without cramping your style, the Paradigm Rock Monitors should provide sufficient reasoning for you to catch up on your listening sessions while enhancing the enjoyment of yard activities.

About Paradigm

Paradigm Electronics Inc., a Canadian company founded in 1982 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is an international leader in speaker design and manufacturing. The company produces award-winning high-end speaker systems under the brand names Paradigm® and Paradigm® Reference. Sister company, Anthem Electronics Inc., housed under the same roof, is a leader in the design and manufacture of award-winning high-end electronics for music, home theater and distributed audio, sold internationally under the brand names Anthem® and Anthem® Statement. Paradigm® and Anthem® products are sold through a network of top independent a/v specialty dealers across the United States and Canada, most of whom have been selling these brands from the beginning. Products are sold internationally, through a carefully chosen distributor network.

Paradigm Loudspeakers
Paradigm Electronics Inc.
11 - 919 Fraser Dr.
Burlington, ON L7L 4X8
Canada

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

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Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value