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Anyone own/listened to Paradigm Prestige 95s?

Paradigm is phasing out Prestige speakers. There are some deals to be had.
I'm looking at a set of deeply discounted 95s.

These have been kind of polarizing speakers.  Stereophile reviewed them, and some people took the review as saying between the lines, eh, not as good as they'd expect for the money. 
Others have said they found them too bright, hard on their ears for extended listening.
Still others praised them. Sometimes the 85s seemed to get more love than the 95s.

I have a set of Studio 20 bookshelves. Also early Canadian-built Atoms at work.  Compared to Klipsch Heresy II speakers which I have also owned  for 30+ years,  I'd say the Paradigms I've had have a particular house sound,  very detailed with a decent soundstage, no matter what the front end components are.  The Heresys are pretty efficient, generating a lot of sound even with the volume knob at pretty conservative settings. The Paradigms seem to like incrementally more watts, though I wouldn't say they are difficult to drive.  When going from a budget phono pre to a JC3+, I noticed the difference in detail more on the Klipsch than the Studio 20s. 

Few brick and mortar stereo shops around me.  I much prefer the shop that deals in Paradigm.  Most of what they've sold me has never needed service.  When one item did, due to an accident, not a failure,  they fixed it in house. 

I'd welcome any input on the 95s based on real ownership or experience.
cincinnatipete

Showing 1 response by calvinandhobbes

calvinandhobbes
272 posts
 
I’ve heard them at a dealer with a Parasound Halo Hint 6 integrated amp as well as a Cambridge Azur integrated amp. What I liked about the Prestige 95 was the warm sound and broad soundstage. However, they sounded "slow" and lacking pace to me when paired with the Parasound amp. Substituting the Cambridge amp added pace, but then made the speakers sound more grainy and less warm and full. I imagine that the paired amplification has some impact on the brightness of the speaker.

These were my listening notes on the Prestige 95 speaker:

Paradigm Prestige 95F ($5000): I started off listening to these streaming Qobuz via what I think was an Auralic DAC and a Parasound Halo integrated amp. The tone quality of the 95Fs was very nice with a full bass response and clear reproduction of high frequencies. But these speakers sounded slow and lacking ability to convey rhythms. When I shared my impressions with the sales staff, they switched out the Parasound amp for a Cambridge Audio Azur 851a integrated amp and that made the 95F sound rhythmic and pacey with the same music. The Cambridge Audio did, however, add a level of graininess to the sound quality that the Parasound Halo was able to smooth over with the velvet sheen that it seemed to add.

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