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Paradigm ships its Special Edition speakers
The winning record Paradigm's Special Edition (SE) series of speakers racked up in blind testing piqued our interest, but now it's time for John Q. Public to take the taste test. If the promise of Studio-like sonics at Monitor-ish price points holds, the SE series should help Paradigm add customers to its ranks, that's for sure. If you're chasing after a matched surround setup, it's simple -- pick between bookshelf (SE 1, $299 each) or floorstander (SE 3, $699 each) left/right channels, and then add in an SE center ($499), SE subwoofer ($699), and additional SE 1s as surrounds to your heart's content. As you'd expect from Paradigm, there's some emphasis on high-efficiency -- so you can bet that these will sing well together, even with a smaller amp. Judging from the press photo, the cabinets are a little boxy, but the glossy finish (in slimming black, no less) and radiused edges should help you sneak these into your setup. Full press release after the break.
Paradigm's SE 1 speaker backs up its value proposition in blind testing
Punching above your weight in the $1,000-per speaker realm is impressive, but it's largely irrelevant because it's just too expensive for most people, period. Don't feel bad, though, Paradigm's forthcoming SE series sits between the brand's Studio and Monitor lines, below the kilobuck mark, and promises to sound fabulous. The company will be showing of its forthcoming $300 (per speaker) SE 1 bookshelf model at CEDIA this week, which in its final testing has been racking up subjective listening wins over competition in the $1,000 range. In controlled tests against a much more expensive and a cheaper set of speakers, the SE 1 has posted an impressive record of 492 wins, with only six losses to the more expensive speaker. Critics may cry foul at the home-test results, and we wouldn't say that there's any one "best" speaker; but this is really about Paradigm testing its SE 1 against market competition and at the very least this performance warrants a place on your audition list. Hit the link for the full details; you've got time to make a decision -- the SE 1, SE 3 ($700, floorstanding), SE Center ($500) and SE Sub ($700) won't ship until sometime after CEDIA.
