Paradigm Prestige 75F Floorstanding Speaker System Review

Paradigm Prestige 75F Introduction

Paradigm is a well-known, highly-regarded speaker company out of Mississauga, ON Canada. Canada is home to a disproportionate number of superb speaker companies, including Energy, PSB, Mirage, Totem and others. Paradigm speakers have been justifiably highly-reviewed for years, consistently landing on various “Critics’ Choice” and “Product of the Year” lists.

We decided to take a look at one of their mid-priced Prestige Series speakers. Note that “mid-priced” is a relative term here. The Prestige Series consists of three floorstanders—the 95F, 85F and 75F—two 3-way center speakers, a multi-directional surround, a compact bookshelf model and two powered subwoofers.

All the speakers (except for the subs) share similar driver technology and materials. The woofers and mids have Paradigm’s  X-PAL™ brushed pure-aluminum bass drivers with overmolded ART™ surrounds and SHOCK-MOUNT™ Isolation Mounting System.

The tweeters in all are their 1" X-PAL™ tweeter with exclusive Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Tweeter Lens and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) optimized pole piece assembly. (You have to love the creative lengths that speaker marketing people go to come up with what they hope will be catchy names and memorable descriptions for regular old woofers and tweeters. I know—I did this at Boston Acoustics and Atlantic Technology for decades and I created some of the best, ummm, horse hockey ever invented. In the end, what counts is how the speaker sounds, not names like X-PAL or Kortec or anything else.)

There are three models in the Prestige Series: The 75F at $ 1499/ea; the 85F at $1999/ea; and the 95F at $2499/ea. Pair prices of $3000, $4000 and $5000 are not chump change, especially in an economy that still doesn’t feel confidently solid to many people. This review looks at the 75F.

Design Overview

The packaging was fully up to the task of protecting the speakers, as they arrived in perfect condition after an inter-country (Canada to MA) Fed Ex Ground journey.

The Prestige 75F’s were double-boxed in two medium-duty corrugated cartons and had high-quality EPS foam caps holding the speaker in the inner carton. It was interesting: the outer carton was just a transportation carton, with virtually no marking or brand identification of any kind. I did appreciate the oval handholds, something that I had mentioned was missing on the NHT Classic Fours I reviewed last summer.

Outer Cartons

The inner cartons were the full graphic, 2-color boxes, complete with Paradigm logo, speaker drawing, model identification, etc. I would guess that in addition to protecting the speaker during transit, the outer carton also hides the identity of the box’s content, making it less attractive to thieves or unscrupulous delivery drivers. I would further guess that dealers probably discard the outer box once they receive the speakers from Paradigm and present the speakers to the retail customer in the colorful, attractive inner cartons.

 Inner Carton

Cutting open the outer carton, laying it on its side and then sliding out the inner carton is a job best done by two people. It’s easy to slide out the inner carton if someone is holding the outer carton still. I managed it by myself but it was a little unwieldy. Unpacking/setup instructions and the owner’s manual immediately greet you upon opening the inner speaker carton. Nicely done. The next thing that made a very positive impression on me was that the speaker’s feet were already attached to the speakers. It’s a pet peeve of mine, but I hate to take big floorstanding speakers out of their box, balance them on their “head,” attach the foot assembly to the underside of the cabinet then flip the speaker over again right side up. In cases like this, invariably, five of the six threaded inserts are fine, but one is either cross-threaded or has excess paint in the threads that can’t be cleaned out, so you say “Aw, the heck with it,” and make do with the feet attached with five out of six screws.

 Sliding Out Inner Carton

The 75F’s feet were already attached. Thank you, Paradigm. And, by the way—these are nice feet: great-looking, solid, stable.

Feet Already Attached in Carton

Paradigm uses very high quality packaging. Having been involved in the design, sourcing and manufacturing of consumer electronics products for decades, I know the cost difference between good and bad materials, and what that says about what a given manufacturer thinks of their products and the image and impression they wish to convey to their customers.

This was a good first step.

The speakers themselves were covered in a nice cloth bag with the Paradigm logo on the bottom. The grille was in a separate plastic bag, taped to the cloth bag. The grille itself is the new-style design, with a very thin plastic frame and embedded neodymium magnets that “find” and align with their magnetic partners hidden invisibly just beneath the surface of the baffle. The grille “snaps” into place by itself by magnetic force. This is the same system that B&W used on their CM8 small floorstander and it’s definitely preferable to the somewhat old-fashioned method of pushing plastic trees into unsightly rubber receptacles.

Speaker in Protective Bag

Prestige 75F Drivers and Cabinet

The 75F is a 2 ½-way design. This is a clever way to do things, since it lets the manufacturer use multiple woofers for sufficient bass radiating area without the normal dispersion and interference penalty that comes when multiple woofers operate in parallel up into the midrange. Plus, the crossover cost and complexity is virtually the same as a conventional 2-way network: usually just an added choke to roll the lower woofer(s) off. This is often far less expensive than a true multi-band 3-way crossover network.

There are three 5.5-inch woofers in the 75F. It’s interesting that Paradigm presents these drivers as “5.5-inch,” rather than the industry-standard way of stating things as 5 ¼-inch drivers. These are not any “bigger” than any other 5.x-inch driver. It’s those Paradigm marketing guys again: just trying to make it seem as if their woofers are a little different and better than someone else’s. Nothing wrong with that.

Front Baffle Driver Layout 

Woofer Exploded View

The tweeter is an aluminum driver with a perforated cover of varying-dimensioned holes placed over the diaphragm. They call it a Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Tweeter Lens. I’d imagine the purpose is to diffuse and mitigate the inevitable resonant peak exhibited by virtually all metal-dome tweeters, leaving the listener with the supposed attributes of a metal dome (“speed” and “detail”), while minimizing the negative aspects of metal diaphragms (audible peaks and “harshness”). The dome/lens assembly sits at the apex of a very shallow horn flare, which presumably is intended to act as a modest waveguide to control dispersion and aid in efficiency over the tweeter’s operational passband.

 

Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Tweeter Lens

 

Tweeter Exploded View

As a 2 ½-way design, all three woofers work in tandem to cover the bass range. Measuring the actual piston diameter in the generally-accepted manner of mid-surround to mid-surround yields a tick less than 4.5”, so the driver’s radiating area is just shy of 16² inches. Three drivers x 16² in = 48² inches total bass radiating area. For comparison, a standard 8-inch woofer with a 7-inch piston is 38.5² inches and a standard 10-inch woofer with a 9-inch piston is 64² inches. So the 75F has an effective woofer “size” somewhere in between an 8 and 10-inch woofer, but with much wider midrange dispersion due to the far smaller driver size. Remember, dispersion is primarily a function of driver size relative to wavelength. If the driver’s diameter is smaller than the wavelength of the frequency it’s reproducing, the dispersion is very wide. If the driver is larger than the wavelength being reproduced, the driver will “beam” its output forward like a flashlight.

The two woofer-only drivers share a common internal chamber and port (the lower port). These drivers are rolled off at 500Hz. The ports themselves are nicely flared to minimize the audible turbulence (port chuffing) that can occur at high levels with an unflared port. This looks good, but truth be told, at the SPLs where port turbulence might be audible, there’s “so much else going on” at that high volume that the listener likely would not be overly bothered by any audible chuffing. This is just one of those features that speaker manufacturers have to include to satisfy all those get-a-life reviewers who pick on little details.

The upper woofer/midrange driver is in its own dedicated internal chamber (presumably to avoid backwave pressure interference from the lower two woofers) and has its own flared port. It continues on up to 2kHz, where it crosses over to the tweeter. Since the radiating diameter of the woofers is so small (barely over 4 inches, Paradigm’s amusing “5.5-inch” spec notwithstanding), the midrange/woofer will still exhibit wide dispersion at the 2kHz crossover, maintaining a very smooth power response/directivity profile as one driver transitions to the next. That the 75F can achieve this with a crossover that is barely more expensive and complex than a conventional 2-way crossover is the essence of intelligent audio engineering. This is exactly the correct way to attain the seemingly conflicting goals of sufficient radiating area for good bass response, excellent dispersion/power response through the crucial mid-band region where the human ear is most sensitive and a narrow front baffle for minimum diffraction and secondary reflections (with the added bonus of agreeable aesthetics from a narrow baffle).

Rear Panel Ports

Interestingly, the upper models in the Prestige Series show diminishing returns in this respect, since the 85F’s 6.5-inch woofers/midrange and the 95F’s 8-inch woofers/midrange both trade superior bass response for narrower midrange dispersion and a rougher transition to the tweeter. The math is the math and the dispersion/power response at the crossover—all three models cross over at 2.0kHz—gets markedly worse as you go up to the larger models. Oh well.

The Prestige 75F’s cabinet might be compact at 37 x 7 x 10 inches HWD, but it’s quite heavy for its size and conveys a very solid impression to the user. The “knuckle rap test” on the big side panel revealed a mostly high-pitched and well-damped sound character, with the middle of the panel having a slightly lower tone and more hollow quality than the upper and lower portions.  But in no way did the cabinet have the “empty oil barrel” sound one hears from a thin-walled cabinet with minimal (or no) internal bracing. This is a solid cabinet.

There are two sets of binding posts, connected by a metal “jumper” strap, at the bottom of the rear panel The ends of the posts do not have the usually-required plastic CE (European) safety plugs, as I’m used to seeing. Apparently, Paradigm must do a special run with the plugs installed for CE countries, since there is no need for those annoying plastic caps here in the U.S. If you want to use banana plugs instead of bare wire to connect the speaker wire to the posts, you’re free to do so. The posts themselves have a nice-sized hole to accept bare wire and that’s how I connected them with 14-ga wire. Nice, easy, and secure. I did not use the bi-amp feature, but it’s nice to know the option exists. The actual audible benefit of so-called “bi-amping” or “bi-wiring,” especially when you’re still going through the speaker’s internal passive crossover is highly debatable, to say the least. I’d venture to say—with an extremely high degree of confidence—that simply moving the speaker’s location by six inches closer to or farther from the wall behind it will cause a far more definite, audible difference than “bi-amping,” especially if the amplifiers involved (a single full range or two for bi-amped) are not pushed into distortion. However, that’s a can of placebo worms best left unopened in this review.

Binding Posts

A quick note on the cabinet finish—these are two Gloss finishes—piano black and midnight cherry, and two Satin finishes—walnut and black walnut. I assumed that the Gloss finishes would be attractive and high quality. I wanted to see what the so-called regular ‘wood finishes’ looked like, so I ordered Satin walnut. I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed. Paradigm tells us this is real wood veneer, not vinyl. They blew it here—it looks no better than a good vinyl wrap and at first I thought it was, until Paradigm clarified it for me. For $3000/pair, customers have every right to expect a more luxurious, elegant finish.

Paradigm Prestige 75F Set-Up & Sound Quality

I set up and listened to the Prestige 75F’s in a two-channel music system. The room was a small-to-medium sized 17 x 14 x 8 ft. These are very good-sounding dimensions, since the length (17) is a prime number, and the height (8 ft) is not a whole number multiple of either the length or width. Therefore, these dimensions do not lend themselves to troublesome, additive bass/room resonances. The room has six 2 x 3 ft acoustic wall treatments staggered around the four walls; one centered on the front wall, two each at different heights on the side walls, and once centered on the rear wall between the two windows. There is a large sectional couch for seating and the floor is carpeted. Overall, the room is just slightly on the dead side of neutral, and it sounds excellent: solid, uniform bass, good imaging and detail, very little “ringing,” but live enough to let the speakers blossom out and fill the space with organic sound. Excellent recordings, especially of small-scale ensembles like jazz trio or solo piano, can sound almost live in this room. I have tremendous confidence that this room allows equipment to sound as good, or bad, as it can.

The 75F’s were set up about 1 ½ feet from the wall behind them and about 2 ½-3 feet from the sidewalls. I experimented with placement by moving them closer to the wall behind them, but found that the balance got a little ‘tubby’ when the speakers were within about 6 inches to a foot of the wall. The speakers have good horizontal dispersion and toe-in was modest—perhaps 10º or so. Set up this way, the speakers threw a very solid, well-defined image with a good phantom center. They sounded similar, but not identical, when seated vs. standing. Having three vertically-aligned drivers covering the exact same frequency range up to 500Hz (well into the vocal range) restricts the vertical dispersion to a marked degree, and it’s somewhat noticeable when standing. It was not an issue at all when listening in the normal seated position.

Associated Equipment

The rest of the system is simple but straightforward, and very high quality. The pre-amplifier/power amp combo was Parasound’s New Classic 2100 pre-amp and 2250 power amp, rated at 200/385 watts per channel 20-20k, into 8/4 Ω loads, respectively. Paradigm doesn’t actually rate the impedance of these speakers. They use the intentionally-vague wording of “compatible with 8 ohms” as meaningless and information-free a statement as there ever was. One can assume with confidence that if these were benign 8Ω speakers, Paradigm would’ve said so. This rating is bogus for two reasons: 1) Paradigm is better than this. They’re a solid engineering company and their customers deserve accurate information. 2) The prestige Series runs from $3000-5000/pair. These are expensive speakers and it’s quite logical to assume that the associated electronics that would be used with these speakers are quite capable of handling 4Ω loads.

The CD player was the NAD 545 with Burr-Brown DACs. Considering the modest size of the listening room, this is more than enough clean, distortion-free power to ensure that the electronics never intruded upon the listening sessions in a negative way. Speaker wire was simple 14 ga. twisted-end, inserted into the holes in the binding posts. Basic Monster interconnects between the pre/power and the CD/pre. Nothing lunatic-fringe about the connectors and speaker wire, and more importantly, nothing that could even remotely be considered a defining or distracting influence on the sound.

Initial Listening Impressions

Like a lot of people in this business, I have listened to a lot of speakers over the years. Reviewers and designers alike develop an acute sense of critical hearing when it comes to evaluating a speaker’s sound. In the very recent past, I’ve had some really excellent mid-sized and –priced floorstanding speakers pass through these parts, such as the Atlantic Technology AT-1 (Stereophile-recommended, with their revolutionary H-PAS bass technology), the standout B&W CM8 and the NHT Classic Four. All of these speakers are similar in size, price and general acoustic quality. I’d be happy with any of them on a day-to-day basis.

But, they’re not the same. They have their individual character, their strengths and weaknesses, their particular colorations. Now along comes the Paradigm Prestige 75F. How does it stack up, both in an absolute sense considered on its own and in comparison to other speakers of similar size/price that I’ve heard?

The very first thing that struck me was their lack of—for want of a better term—a certain “nasal” or “papery” midrange coloration that’s all too common to most speakers, especially at or below this price. Traits like bass extension and treble dispersion are pretty objective—the speakers either respond strongly to that 32Hz organ note or they don’t. You can either hear that subtle triangle strike sitting way off axis or you can’t.

But a slight midrange coloration—that sort of honky nasality that a speaker imparts to the tonal signature of the program material—that’s harder to define in objective terms, but no less obvious in subjective terms.

This was the Prestige 75F’s crowning achievement: virtually none of the honk and congestion that mars almost every speaker I’ve heard, regardless of size or price. That’s not to say the 75F was perfectly neutral—it wasn’t, with a slight forward hardness to the upper middle—but it didn’t have that common “speakery” tonal quality in the lower to mid middle. That was my initial impression and it never changed. A speaker that has even a slight trace of honk will make that trait known within the first few seconds and if it’s there, it never goes away. The 75F had some not insignificant shortcomings (which I’ll get to), but it didn’t honk…ever. That alone puts it in the upper class of speakers I’ve heard.

On track after track, with pop, jazz, classical, vocals, everything, the 75F’s were commendably neutral, detailed, lively and enjoyable. Their bass was clean and well-defined and appropriately weighty, with a nice sense of rhythm and pitch definition, never thumpy or one-notey. I do have to raise my eyebrows at Paradigm for their 44Hz low-frequency spec. A true, honest bass response down into the low-40’s is pretty deep for a full-range passive speaker. Low E on an electric bass is 42Hz. The aforementioned B&W CM8’s were rated down to 69Hz, which seemed overly conservative in the other direction. Yet playing the same CDs on both speakers in the same room with the same electronics, their low ends were subjectively identical…..Identical. There is no way the 75F went flat to the low 40’s at meaningful output levels. I’d say mid to upper 50’s, which is a very respectable bass end for a speaker with three small woofers.

Overall imaging was quite nice, with a satisfying sense of three-dimensional depth and a soundstage that seemed to extend past the left and right speakers when the program called for it.

Listening Tests

I have used many of the same discs for many years to test loudspeakers, not simply because they’re well-recorded CDs, but because I know them so well that they are reliable test devices that I can compare from speaker to speaker and be confident of the differences I’m hearing.

CD: Steely Dan—Aja

A nicely-recorded pop CD, with Steely Dan’s trademark clarity, solid deep bass and crisply-etched vocals. Everyone knows this disc well. In its day, it set a new high-water mark for clarity, spaciousness and bass impact. Even today, only the best speakers can keep Steve Gadd’s explosive drum fills on the title track clear and well-defined under Wayne Shorter’s tenor sax solo. The 75F’s did very well here, never losing their composure, even at near-uncomfortably high SPLs. They never got screechy or edgy and maintained a nice warmth and musicality at all times.

CD: Jennifer Warnes—The Hunter

This is an over-played, over-used, totally synthetic-sounding and too-heavily processed pop recording. But the opening cut, Rock You Gently, is so chock full of quantifiable, repeatable audio tidbits that if one overlooks the questionable production merits of the song, its sonic traits do provide some valuable information. The recording has a very deep, strong bass line throughout and some sharp snare drum <cracks> that punctuate the background. But it’s at the 2:33 mark of the track that things get interesting. I’d used this cut for years to test how well a speaker can simultaneously deliver clean, low-distortion deep bass (long excursion), while keeping the female vocals clear and preserving detailed highs. It’s a tough test for most speakers. And if a speaker doesn’t have subterranean bass response on its own, it’s a good test to see how well the speaker will ignore the very deepest bass that it can’t reproduce anyway while still doing a good job with the rest of the spectrum. I’d gone years listening to this cut on all the speakers I’ve voiced without realizing that at 2:33 there is a sustained low-20s Hz tone (about three seconds long) that just rises up from the floor and absolutely dominates the room.

few full-range passive speakers will reproduce this tone, since most full-range speakers—even quite excellent, expensive ones—will only respond, honestly, down to 35-40 Hz or so. My reference speakers are sealed systems with dual 12” woofers (with a very shallow 12 dB/octave rolloff), rated very realistically down to -3 dB @ 28 Hz. With a little room gain by virtue of being within a foot of the wall behind them, per the manufacturer’s recommendation, they are quite flat in my room down to the lower 20s. At the 2:33 mark of this cut, fed with 400 distortion-free watts, they make dogs cower and babies cry.

The Prestige 75 dutifully ignored the 22Hz tone at 2:33 as if it didn’t exist. I say that as the highest compliment to the Paradigm speaker. It didn’t overload, it didn’t distort, the presence of that tone didn’t cause havoc with the rest of the music. The 75F simply didn’t reproduce it, while continuing to go about the rest of its business in a highly accurate, relaxed, coherent manner. Very impressive.

CD: Kurt Elling—Dedicated to You

This is a superb live recording of jazz vocalist Kurt Elling backed by a big band featuring Ernie Watts on tenor sax and Lawrence Hobgood on piano. The first track, All or Nothing at All, starts off with a string quartet intro, beautifully recorded. Played on top-flight equipment, it is almost believable that a string quartet is, in fact, right there. After that intro, there is a piano run ending in a single very high note, struck quite hard. It’s a great test of a tweeter’s power handling and ability to project a three-dimensional, organic sound into the room without being ‘spitty’ or ‘hissy.’ The 75F’s were superb, and their highs were as solid and well-reproduced as one could ask for.

Elling has a great voice, deep and resonant, with tremendous range, power and control. He is a master vocal stylist and his ability to go anywhere he wants and always return home is without equal among today’s singers. If you’ve ever seen him live, you know how he quickly captures the audience’s attention, gains their complete confidence that he’s in total musical command, and then takes them along for the ride. This recording is mixed with Elling in a very solid center image, and the 75F’s convey that quite convincingly. Elling is front and center, and the band is behind him and wide to each side. There was never a time when the sound was thin or lacking in any way. Instantaneous A-B switches to my reference speakers revealed that deeper, more spacious sound was there to be had on the recording, but listening to the 75F’s alone never left you feeling as if something was missing.

CD: Ariel Ramirez/José Carreras—Misa Criolla

Wonderful Phillips recording of classical/vocal music, the first two cuts really test a speaker’s ability to resolve low-level detail and present a three-dimensional sonic landscape. Carreras’ voice is pure and delicate, and is accompanied by very subtle tympani strokes in the background. Properly reproduced, these strokes convey a sense of the mallet head hitting the drumhead and the resonant tail from the strike carries on long and quietly fades off behind the vocal. The 75F’s proved up to the task of speaking quietly, but with precision and authority. Lesser speakers smear these details together; the Paradigms kept things clearly delineated and focused, but without artificial hype or an exaggerated top end. This is a tough test disc, highly recommended.

       

Diane Shuur & The Count Basie Orchestra

The first cut, Deedles’ Blues, is a rollicking, gutsy, full-blooded big band jazz vocal. Ms. Shuur’s voice is not exactly cut from the Cloth of Subtlety, if you catch my drift. And since this is a GRP recording, everything is just a bit overdone, a little larger than life. On second-tier equipment, things can degenerate into a screamfest pretty quickly, prompting a hurried lunge to turn down the volume control. First-rate gear presents this cut with lifelike verve and excitement, not with harshness and edginess. The 75F’s handled this very well, and the expected trace of midrange nasality that I’ve endured on many otherwise fine speakers never materialized. Out of habit, I braced myself for it, but it never came. What a relief.

Paradigm Prestige 75F Conclusion

The Paradigm Prestige 75F acquitted itself quite well during its stay. I’ve had some outstanding similar-sized and similar–priced speakers in my home in the past few years for review and extended evaluation: the $2,200/pr. B&W CM8, the $2,500/pr. Atlantic Technology AT-1 and the $2700/pr. NHT Classic Four. All are fine speakers, and easily among the best in their size/price category. The Prestige 75F is a solid contender among this group of excellent loudspeakers. It doesn’t have the bass extension of Atlantic’s H-PAS system, nor the unrestricted dispersion of NHT’s 2-inch domed midrange and ¾-inch tweeter. But it easily surpasses both the AT and B&W in lack of nasal coloration and is subjectively able to play equally as loudly without distress as any of them.

I have two reservations about the 75F: 1) its bass extension and power is not up to what I consider required for a speaker at this price level. The quality of the bass was fine; I just wanted a tad more weight and drama. 2) I do not consider the Satin wood veneer walnut finish to be satisfactory at this price level. It might very well be that the Gloss black or Gloss midnight cherry is fully acceptable. I don’t know as I haven’t seen them. But for $3 large, this speaker doesn’t quite look the part. If we did a “3 ¾” Value Rating, that’s what I would’ve given them, because of the mediocre finish. But their excellent sound nudges them to a “4.”

Nonetheless, overall, it’s a solid win. The ultimate test is how it sounds, and the 75F—especially in terms of its non-grating, open, natural midrange presentation—scores big here. These are speakers you could enjoy every day. If you have a good bass control on your preamp, a quick turn to 12:30 is all it takes to make everything right with the world.

 

Paradigm Prestige 75F Review

MSRP: $1499 ea.

Paradigm Electronics, Inc.

205 Annagem Boulevard
Mississauga, ON Canada L5T2V1

Tel: (905) 564-1994

http://www.paradigm.com/ 

 

About Paradigm Prestige [from the company’s description on its web site]:

For over 30 years, Paradigm has set the standard for innovation and technology in loudspeaker manufacturing. The new Prestige Series builds on this history by combining new technologies with smart engineering, for astonishing performance at an incredible value. And Prestige is designed and crafted right here in our Canadian facility.

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

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

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