Unfortunately most of the old names that originally made their name by their technical knowledge, ingenuity and research, Paradigm was one them, left that legacy behind. Paradigm almost went bust until the new management decided that good marketing and sales network management brings market share. Since then their products have nothing to do with physics but all to do with marketing and pushy sales channel.
Original Paradigm speakers, in their own words "were based on audio researchers and the detailed scientific findings from audio studies conducted by the National Research Council of Canada."
How can you then interpret this speaker? If those speakers are designed for surround then how is it possible that the centre speaker is simply a rotated front speaker?
They aren't designed for surround...or any particular position, any more than any other brand/model of speaker is. There's no need for a special 'surround' design for loudspeakers, though those do exist. You can just use 5 of the same speaker. That guarantees consistency of timbre at least. (FWIW, the original mixing spec for DVD-A and SACD 5.1 audio called for 5 identical full range speakers).
In fact my 'other' 5.x system uses five identical speakers, just like this one is...only it's a different, bigger speaker.
How can you use a speaker optimised for wider horisontal dispersion (drivers on top of each other) on a centre channel.
You can keep it vertical. That's what I do for music listening.
Btw, in 2019, one of the original Paradigm founders bought the company back from the private equity firm that took over in 2005.
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