From: jrl8@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (James R Lendino)
Subject: Decision on purchasing low-end speakers
Summary: Paradigm Phantoms ---- $249 per pair
Reply-To: jrl8@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (James R Lendino)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 17:56:40 GMT

    Yesterday, I finally found a store that carried Paradigm -- I went
to American Audiophile Inc, which is located at 373 Sunrise Highway
in Lynbrook, Long Island.  I went on the recommendations of a lot 
of you who said that Celestion, Paradigm, B&W, and PSB were the models
to look at.

    In a nutshell, here was my dilemma - I wanted a real, good sounding
stereo system for my dorm room at school.  A subwoofer is out of the
question due to the thin walls in my dorm, but I would definitely like
to add one for home.  This meant that the speakers had to have enough bass
bass to satisfy me (I listen mostly to progressive rock, with a little
jazz and classical thrown in just to make buying speakers difficult :-) ),
while at the same time have good imaging and clear highs so when I
added a subwoofer, they would still sound excellent.

   I heard the Celestion 3s, which in my opinion had the most accurate highs
of any speaker I've ever heard (I don't listen to true high-end stuff).
They have a titanium-dome tweeter, which I'm sure helps.  The only problem
with those, other than their slightly high price, was the smallish
5" woofer and enclosure which contributed to poor bass response for
rock music (although a jazz CD I brought along sounded positively
heavenly).

   Next up were the Paradigm Titans.  These speakers, IMHO, sounded
great.  The highs were nearly as spectactular as the Celestions, but
with tighter bass.  Stereo review pointed out that they don't go very
low, but they make good use of what was there.  Someone pointed out to
me that Stereo Review likes everything, and after going through several
issues, as well as discovering that they positively loved Boses'
Acoustimass-3 powered setup, I'm only inclined to agree.

   Anyway, I thought the Titans were great.  That is, until I heard
the Phantoms.  The Phantoms have basically the same 3/4 high-freq.
driver as the Titans, but with an 8 inch woofer instead of 6.5",
a die-cast aluminum chassis for the woofer, a considerably larger
enclosure (approx 18x9x11 in), and deeper bass.  The crossover is
moved from 3 kHz to 2.5 kHz, and power handling increases to 150 w
continous.  Freq. response is 60-20K at +/- 2 dB, and 40 hz at
-3 dB (listening rooms reinforce bass according to the brochure).
Sensitivity is 90 dB.

   I had already heard Altec Lansing's low-buck model (nice, but
these were better and could go a lot louder), Infinity Ref Ones
(not natural enough to me), Advent Graduates (same problem as with
my current Advent Prodigy towers - deep, powerful bass, but no
highs to speak of), and I didn't like any of them as much as these,
so I plunked down the $249 to the very helpful (but otherwise too high
end for me) salesman.  He even agreed to deliver them when they came
in (this week, sometime) to my home in Brooklyn, so I wouldn't have
to drive out there again.

   As an aside, for those of you who've helped me or have
been reading the posts, I'm also looking for a moderately powered
receiver for these speakers, and the cheapest one the store carried
was a $400 Marantz 40w/ch unit.  He positively trashed Yamaha and
Denon when I brought them up.  He had a great Carver unit for $499
that was 60w/channel, but as of right now out of my budget.

   In summary, the Phantoms seemed to be the best compromise - smooth
balanced sound, with satisfying bass.  I then heard them hooked
up to a powered Infinity sub (which was about $600, I think Yamaha's
YST-SW100 is just as good for $200 less), and the whole thing sounded
wonderful.  The highs can get the slightest bit hard-edged as you
turn up the Phantoms, but not enough that I could care.

   Thank you to all those who helped, including those who posted
up summaries of their own questions, anyone who replied to me, and
in particular Lon Stowell, who took a lot of time to patiently answer all
of my questions (and I had many).

   I'll post up when I decide on a receiver.
   Happy Holidays!

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James R. Lendino
jrl8@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
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