Essential Install | Anthem AV Solutions
A Paradigm Shift?
John Soden, AVP international sales Paradigm electronics,
tells EI why installers should consider switching to Paradigm.
What is the history and heritage of Paradigm?
Paradigm is an award-winning loudspeaker manufacturer
based just outside Toronto, Canada. For over 33 years
Paradigm has prided itself as being one of the largest
vertically integrated loudspeaker manufactures in North
America. Since 1982 Paradigm loudspeakers have been
designed, engineered and manufactured in our quarter of a
million-square foot manufacturing facility. Paradigm features
one of the largest (33,000 cubic feet), private anechoic
measurement chambers in North America. This tool is critical
to the design and engineering process and is leveraged
throughout all of our developments. In 1998, Paradigm
Electronics Inc. acquired Sonic Frontiers Inc. including The
Parts Connection, Assemblage and Anthem Electronics.
Today, Anthem remains as the brand’s electronics counterpart
and is manufactured in the same Toronto, Ontario facility.
Paradigm is available
via Anthem AV
Solutions
What are the key manufacturing technologies that make
the Paradigm difference?
Paradigm core competencies include CNC cabinet
construction and finishing including wood, metal, phenolic
and other composite materials. We offer in-house painting,
veneering and polishing and use injection moulding for
plastic components including baskets, baffle, bases and
terminal cups. Our grille design and manufacturing is also
on-site, including moulding, heat pressing and finishing
and we have custom injection moulding capabilities to
fabricate cone moulding and durable over-moulded
surrounds on both plastic and aluminium cones. The
company also boasts driver and crossover CAD design and
assembly facilities. We also deliver rapid prototyping and
carry out own environmental testing.
We also leverage key technologies across our product
families which includes Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA)
lenses which protects the driver and acts as the Phase
Plug, blocking out-of-phase frequencies for smoother,
extended high frequencies with incredible detail and
higher output. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) optimisation
concentrates the magnet’s power for maximum efficiency
and fast response while lowering the driver’s resonance
frequency for clean, accurate sound. We are also proud of
our Active Ridge Technology (ART) surrounds, made inhouse and over-moulded directly onto each cone, which
achieve greater excursion for a 3dB gain in distortion-free
output (50% greater) compared to drivers with standard
surrounds. Our Shock-Mount isolation mounting system
is a butyl-rubber driver fastening system in which critically
placed isolation inserts and gaskets decouple drivers from
the speaker’s enclosure, resulting in reduction of driver/
enclosure interactions and their associated performance
robbing resonances and vibrations.
Are there any technologies that make the products
straightforward or easier to install?
Our sister-company, Anthem, features a proprietary
room-correction technology called ARC (Anthem Room
Correction) which greatly reduces the negative effects
of the environment with regards to sound reproduction.
Paradigm speakers and our strong off-axis performance,
combined with ARC, greatly improve placement flexibility
for the installer. It also makes setting up easier and faster
without the need for perfect loudspeaker positioning. PBK
(Perfect Bass Kit) which is derived from ARC allows for easy
subwoofer setup and provides the placement flexibility.
PBK is included on most Paradigm branded subwoofers.
What about the recent Prestige range and Classic Collection?
Prestige combines 33 years of acoustic innovation and
development into one loudspeaker line, introduced with
patented technologies which now trickle throughout the
entire Paradigm product family. Prestige was critical in that
it introduced our longstanding audience to a new market
positioning. Prestige provides tremendous value while
being positioned as a luxury product offering which can
be squared off against products twice its price.
The Classic collection was designed to provide
customers with a cost-effective product assortment
which provides the perfect balance between value and
performance. For years, Monitor Series was promoted
worldwide as one of the best values in the budget
audiophile segment. Today it continues to be the bread and
butter of the Paradigm product line. Customers seeking
a high-performance solution without all the luxurious
bells and whistles will not be disappointed. The Classic
Collection holds true to Paradigms’ primary objective of
delivering great sounding products at affordable prices.
The Classic Collection has been reinforced to include
CI products (PV Series and CI Home) to help provide
flexibility when addressing whole-home audio and
application-specific scenarios.
Explain Paradigm’s subwoofer range and what the PBK
kits offer
The lower in frequency, the more the room influences and
negatively effects the speaker’s performance. PBK gives us
the ability to remove the damaging, annoying, obnoxious
effects of the room. Not only do we get great bass that
integrates seamlessly with the main speakers – but when
we clean up the ‘bass cloud’ in the room, all other aspects
of the sound that were muddied, obstructed or blurred are
cleared up and improved as well.
More information: Anthem AV Solutions
+44(0)1359 270280, www.anthemavs.co.uk
18 | November 2016