Paradigm Prestige 15B Review (bookshelf speaker)

[ahofer]

re. Showroom Tweak: My precise experience auditioning the Persona 3F - detail...too much treble....get me out of here.

 

[ahofer]

I found that the Paradigm Persona's that I listened to were really clear too -- that was my primary thought when I heard them (for about 2-3 songs). And I think if you listen 15 degrees off axis, which is not unusual if you face them straight instead of toeing them in, they are not as bright. Though I didn't look at the 15 degree measurements to check that.

I tried this when I was auditioning, but the dealer got so upset I couldn’t keep it up. He kept nattering in my ear about how screwed up the soundstage was and we should put it back before his sensibilities were permanently damaged.

Same guy couldn’t tell when he had reversed the channels setting up a different pair. And playing chamber music, no less.

 

[Dmitri]

I still have a pair of those old Athena AS-B1 speakers that were sold in best buy.

To this day, not many low priced speakers sound as good as those. They were not perfect, but OMG for the price, they killed many higher priced brands easily.

I remember those. They were the only speakers that ever impressed me in a Best Buy “showroom”...and also the only ones I remember having waveguides similar to many of the positively reviewed speakers here.

 

[hex168]

“our exclusive Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Tweeter Lens that protects the delicate tweeter dome and acts as the Phase Plug, blocking out-of-phase frequencies for smoother, extended high frequencies with incredible detail and higher output.”

Patent: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a7/ae/38/425018c1b30bc9/US10003869.pdf
They even have a graphic showing that it increases SPL in the upper treble. They claim that dome tweeters cause phase mismatch as the round shape causes slight timing differences from HF sound radiated from it, which in turn causes phase mismatch, and that their lens corrects this.


To dumb it down:
• Bunch of holes on the grille.
• Solid for part of the grille (center)
• Holes are smaller the closer they are to the center.

No, blocking the center will causes blockage of ultra high frequencies, and we can see it dropping right as it reaches 20kHz, but that’s not a big deal. I would expect this grille to effect the off-axis, and we can pretty much see that as true.


KEF’s tangerine waveguide thing also is stated to increase SPL by blocking part of the tweeter; still kinda confuses me.

I think the SPL increase in certain frequencies is by reducing out-of-phase cancellation from different parts of the dome. Given pistonic motion, the path length from parts of the dome to the listener/measurement microphone will be different. For break-up modes, who knows?

 

[hex168]

Perforated tweeter covers are in style.

Bowers & Wilkins for BMW and Volvo:

Burmester for Mercedes-Benz and Porsche:

Lexicon for Genesis:

The Burmeister seems to be following the same model as Paradigm to improve off-axis. The B&W looks like it would have the opposite effect, having the larger holes towards the center. The Lexicon is just weird. Although, I suppose a proper model would be more informative than my uncalibrated eyeball.

 

[MediumRare]

It's patented, so probably not just marketing, but how much it actually helps/hurts, who knows...

https://www.paradigm.com/en/technology-design/patented-perforated-phase-aligning-ppa-lens

You can patent things that don’t work in practice, it’s just a claim.

 

[MediumRare]

Perforated tweeter covers are in style.

Bowers & Wilkins for BMW and Volvo:

Burmester for Mercedes-Benz and Porsche:

Lexicon for Genesis:

The AM transistor radio I had in grade school had Speaker cover perforations, too.

 

[pLudio]

Hmzzz... Paradigm is using the perforated phase screen on the mid/woof and midranges of the high end series too.
View attachment 106780
View attachment 106781

I suspect it has mostly to do with protecting the beryllium drivers.

 

[RHG55]

re. Showroom Tweak: My precise experience auditioning the Persona 3F - detail...too much treble....get me out of here.

I had the same experience listening to a pair of Paradigm Prestige 75F floor standing speakers, at a dealer’s showroom, when I was searching for a new pair of speakers to replace my old Koss CM-1030s. They were much too bright. I’m glad that Amir’s tests have confirmed that my hearing, particularly at high frequencies, is still fairly good.

 

[infinitesymphony]

The AM transistor radio I had in grade school had Speaker cover perforations, too.

But did it have stylish concentric designs and the light show from a Kia Soul?

I like the woofer covers on the Paradigm floorstanders in particular -- it's a cool design element that sets them apart. Great for both looks and protection as long as it's acoustically transparent and won't rattle over time.

 

[infinitesymphony]

So folks know what we are talking about:

Looks like she got caught up in one of those banquet table covers:

 

[fun]

My first good speakers were Energy C-6 and C-2 speakers. I would be curious how they measured, but I would guess pretty well.

My previous HT setup was having the C-6 as front, and AC-300 as center and surrounds. I still have the C-6 in my family room in a stereo setup. When I have time, I will run some REW to see how they fare, but I think they're quite decent.

Soundstage has the measurements of the Energy flagship Veritas 2.4i. They looks good and not bright.
Energy Veritas 2.4i

 

[MediumRare]

But did it have stylish concentric designs and the light show from a Kia Soul?

Yes and no.

 

[Dj7675]

Stereophile measured the C-2 and looks pretty good as well.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/energy-connoisseur-c-2-loudspeaker-measurements

 

[Ericglo]

It’s one of the great looking speakers I am tempted to buy for its look only， with fixable tonality it seems quite some ppl will still go for look

For roughly the same price, I think Dennis' BMRs look a heck of a lot better.

I heard the top of the line Personas a couple of years ago and thought they were really good. They were using their room correction software, but I am not sure what the correction was. My hearing up high may be shot and boosting the treble might bring it back to flat.

 

[mtmpenn]

A (hopefully not too dumb question):

Looking at this speaker and comparing it to say, the Revel M105, one thing that jumps out to me is that the sound power DI curves are relatively different, with the paradigm looking smoother overall. The Revel looks better on on-axis, listening window, and PIR, but has a much more pronounced dip in the sound power DI from 2-5 khz.

Could it be that paradigm is designing for this and/or prioritizing this over the on-axis response?

I lack the expertise to fully understand the trade-offs here (other than the relatively obvious more high frequency energy), but it seems like somewhere in there is an interesting discussion.

 

[beagleman]

A (hopefully not too dumb question):

Looking at this speaker and comparing it to say, the Revel M105, one thing that jumps out to me is that the sound power DI curves are relatively different, with the paradigm looking smoother overall. The Revel looks better on on-axis, listening window, and PIR, but has a much more pronounced dip in the sound power DI from 2-5 khz.

Could it be that paradigm is designing for this and/or prioritizing this over the on-axis response?

I lack the expertise to fully understand the trade-offs here (other than the relatively obvious more high frequency energy), but it seems like somewhere in there is an interesting discussion.

I read something similar about "another" speaker, few years back, and they said the boost in the highs, made up for the falling response off axis, and when combined with the right toe setting, it would even out or something to that effect.

 

[tonydeluce]

I heard that Paradigm is discontinuing the entire Prestige series because the Premier Series is better and sales are way down on the Prestige because of this. Paradigm plans to introduce a series between the Persona and the Premier that is better than the Premier but cost less than the Persona...

 

[BYRTT]

Thanks Amir publish another great work of acoustic review and speaker heaven thanks QC looked be alright for the tested sample ..

That grill pattern looks special compared to most ordinary protection grills used on other brands and probably push a bit to performance up there, be it for automatic farfield sweeps or the manual nearfield sweep analyze..

For below detailed overview animation toggles raw anechoic of 15B verse a bid on ideal EQ and that EQ is not so far from Maiky76 score EQ or for that matter what was used in the listening test..

As i see it at very lows it looks for 15B to keep up a better overall efficiency strategi as seen for some tested KEF systems they offer not to fully cover the baffle loss down there below 140Hz or so and reason for that could be that woofer piston area is of relative small size, for tweeters duty area there looks be some ideal mismatch directivity pattern @3500/5500Hz relative to on axis and maybe some of the reason for that is seen in model below where listening window curve is EQed to same form as directivity index curve to better reveal that whenever on axis curve is a mismatch to listening window curve there is answer to that tracking modeled baffle loss & diffraction for 15B system in that baffle loss & diffraction vary over distance and angle..

 

[wjc]

“our exclusive Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Tweeter Lens that protects the delicate tweeter dome and acts as the Phase Plug, blocking out-of-phase frequencies for smoother, extended high frequencies with incredible detail and higher output.”

Patent: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a7/ae/38/425018c1b30bc9/US10003869.pdf
They even have a graphic showing that it increases SPL in the upper treble. They claim that dome tweeters cause phase mismatch as the round shape causes slight timing differences from HF sound radiated from it, which in turn causes phase mismatch, and that their lens corrects this.


To dumb it down:
• Bunch of holes on the grille.
• Solid for part of the grille (center)
• Holes are smaller the closer they are to the center.

No, blocking the center will causes blockage of ultra high frequencies, and we can see it dropping right as it reaches 20kHz, but that’s not a big deal. I would expect this grille to effect the off-axis, and we can pretty much see that as true.


KEF’s tangerine waveguide thing also is stated to increase SPL by blocking part of the tweeter; still kinda confuses me.

Technically speaking:
According to the patent, the protective screen will elevate the frequencies between 5kHz -18kHz , as seen in the In-Room Response graph. The more the holes on the perforated region, the more even sound will be radiated. The region at the center of the screen (no holes) improves on and off-axis FR, showing very little difference when compared to conventional phase plug with abrupt edges.

With my Paradigm's, you don't need to toe-in the speakers. They are 8FT apart, 9FT from my listening chair.