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Paradigm Reference Signature S8 / C5 / ADP / Servo Home Theater Speaker System
Author: Roger Kanno - www.hometheatersound.com | Source: signature.paradigm.com
They’ve got the look | page - 1 2 3 4
The Reference Signatures look a lot like Paradigm’s Reference Studio line, but any similarities are superficial. According to Paradigm, other than the external appearance of the bass and midrange drivers, the tweeters’ die-cast waveguides, and the complement and layout of the drive-units, just about every aspect of the design and construction of the Signatures is a total revamping of the Studios.
Some of the highlights include: Gold-Anodized Pure-Aluminum (G-PAL) dome tweeters; Aperiodic Resonance Breakup Fins on the interior back wall of the tweeter chambers, to break up internal resonances (the midrange chambers are similarly designed); extensive use of heatsinks to increase power handling and reliability; extremely powerful neodymium and ceramic-ferrite magnets; and G-PAL phase plugs in the midrange drivers. Paradigm claims that their crossovers use high-quality components with silver-plated, oxygen-free copper wiring. It all adds up to speakers that rely on not just a few key technologies or innovations, but in which every facet of the design has been carefully engineered and tested.
 Each 4’-tall, floorstanding Reference Signature S8 weighs 100 pounds. Its 1" G-PAL tweeter is at the very top of the front baffle; below it is a 7" Mica-Loaded-Polymer (MLP) midrange cone, and below that, in a vertical row, are four 7" mineral-filled polypropylene bass cones, close enough to each other that the edges of their chassis touch. The front port is directly below the bottom bass driver; the rear port is slightly higher, above the recessed panel that contains the four large binding posts. The S8’s front baffle is only 8.5" wide, and its rear panel is even narrower because the sides of the 20.5"-deep cabinet curve gently inward.
The Reference Signature C5 is one of the most substantial center-channel speakers I have ever encountered. Weighing 81 pounds, it’s wider (37.5") than most direct-view CRTs, and is quite deep as well (17.5"). It has a complex driver array: the same 1" G-PAL tweeter used in all Signature speakers is vertically aligned above the smaller 4" MLP midrange driver used in the ADP. To either side of these is a 7" MLP midrange driver, these flanked in turn by a pair of 7" mineral-filled polypropylene bass cones, for a total of six drive-units. The C5 has two rear ports and the same high-quality binding posts for biamping or biwiring as the other Reference Signatures.
The Reference Signature ADP surround speaker has two 1" G-PAL tweeters, two 4" MLP midrange drivers mounted on opposite sides of its sealed cabinet, and an 8" mineral-filled polypropylene cone on the speaker’s inner side, pointed toward the listener. Four large gold-plated binding posts are provided for biwiring or biamping. Like their other Adaptive Dipole surround speakers, the Signature ADP is designed to act as a dipole at higher frequencies and (to reinforce the bass) as a bipole at lower frequencies.
The servo-controlled Reference Signature Servo subwoofer has a sealed, relatively compact enclosure that curves slightly inward from front to back. The 107-pound sub is remarkably solid. Its high-excursion, 15" cone looks like a larger version of the drivers used in Paradigm’s Seismic subs, and is driven by a 1200W Ultra-Class-D amplifier. The connections consist of single mono unbalanced (RCA) and balanced (XLR) inputs and a DC trigger. Adjustments include a level control, continuously variable phase from 0 to 180 degrees, a high-pass filter adjustable from 35Hz to 150Hz, and a Bass Contour, which boosts the bass centered at 60Hz and is adjustable from 0 to 6dB.
All Signature Reference models have removable grilles and are available in high-gloss finishes of wood veneer (at added cost), or the less glossy standard finish of cherry veneer. These speakers appear to be extremely well-designed, while providing outstanding build quality, gorgeous looks, and high-quality finishes that wouldn’t be out of place on speakers costing several times as much.
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