Which Paradigm Founder Speaker?

Print
Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Reader SoundStage! Hi-Fi Reader
Category: Reader Feedback Reader Feedback
Created: 01 August 2021 01 August 2021

To Doug Schneider,

I have read your excellent review on the Paradigm Founder 100F loudspeakers. Thanks for reviewing the product. Your review is very thorough, and explains how good these speakers sound.

I am in search of new speakers for my living room, which is small—3.6m wide and 4.5m long (about 12′ × 15′)—and my listening position is about 9′ in front of the speakers.

I would like to know how this speaker compares to the B&W 702 S2 and Monitor Audio Gold 200. Which sounds better? I like neutral-sounding speakers.

Also, I would like to know if the 100F will be too big for my room, or if the 80F would be better. My listening tastes are for movies and music. I will be using the Anthem MRX 1140 A/V receiver.

A reply from your side would be highly appreciated, and will help me decide which speaker to get.

Regards,
Akshay
India


Hello,

Thank you for writing in. B&W and Monitor Audio generally make good speakers, so those two models are worth considering, but that’s really all I can tell you—I don’t have any experience with them, so I can’t tell you how they’d compare.

But I can give you some advice on which Founder speaker to pick for your room. The 100F delivers a lot of deep bass, so using a pair of these excellent speakers could overload your room. Therefore, the smaller 80F might be a better choice—it doesn’t put out quite as much bass, so overload shouldn’t be as much of a problem. However, since you have the MRX 1140, which has Anthem Room Correction (ARC), any bass problems in your room can be fixed. If you enable ARC and do a proper calibration on the MRX 1140 with the speakers you choose, it will apply filters that will ensure bass frequencies don’t overload your room—that’s mainly what ARC is for. This means you could still use the 100F if you want that model. I hope that helps.

Doug Schneider