Are the Paradigm Founder Series really, really good speakers?

the founders are really good

they do a lot of things well

I have the 80f's at the house now auditioning them and I'm very impressed for a small floor standing speaker these things produce some nice clean bass and they don't distort at high volume. I'm digging them so far. 

However I think the 100f's would be a better suite for me. A real mid range driver is nice with a bigger cabinet, one more woofer plug each of them are a little bigger. 

Yeah, I would want at least the 100F. 

I only heard the stand mount model and I thought it was pretty bad honesty. Not the best room but on electronics costing well over $15,000.
The highs seemed wrong (unnatural) to me and the bass was pretty meh for me. I would honestly take a pair of Klipsch RP6000m over them and I am not a klipsch fan. I disliked them enough I don’t remember the details. Five minutes later I heard the B&W 805d3 on a Mac 275 and it was on another level entirely so to me the founders are not giant killers, just another speaker option.
The powered models could be interesting but the passive models would be a total pass for me without a very long demo. First impressions are often right.
The Revel Performa3 F208 is probably a much better speaker than the 100F. You can get a 60 day return from a few places online with them too (crutchfield etc). As always use your own ears.
Reading between the lines I don’t think Steve liked them that well either. https://youtu.be/QayNKbwlCEg

The bookshelf speakers are meant to be surrounds or used in stereo with subs.  They have very little bass extension which is disappointing.  If used in those two scenarios, they're great.  Basing your opinions off that unusual bookshelf is quite unwise.

The 80F and 120H are the stars of the line as far as stereo listening goes.  The 120H are just unreal.  I feel bad for anyone who would very foolishly dismiss them for any reason including hearing just the 40b.