Frequent Adventures in AV readers will know that I spend a considerable amount of time scoping out the latest home cinema products in various locations around the globe.
My latest outing took me all the way to Mississauga, Canada (around 28km southwest of Toronto), where I was welcomed by Paradigm, Martin Logan and Anthem to check out their manufacturing plant, learn about their product ranges, and speak to various key members of their team, including the owner, Scott Bagby.
While I was exposed to a veritable feast of hi-fi and home cinema goodness (keep your eyes peeled for more Paradigm-related articles coming soon), I’m starting with an area which I’m fairly new to.
Custom-install home cinema speakers are, by their nature, hard for us to test. Drilling holes in our ceiling and slicing chunks out of the walls in our AV testing room isn't sustainable, which is why we stick with speaker packages composed of floorstanding and standmounting speakers.
Paradigm’s bread and butter, though, is custom install. The company also makes a wide variety of ‘traditional’ speakers, including the striking Persona range and recently upgraded Premier V2 series (expect a hands-on review of these speakers soon), but a big focus during my time in Canada was on the speakers that custom installers fit into walls and ceilings.
Speaking of, I was joined by a selection of custom installers from around the UK. This included members of the Pulse Cinemas team and dealers from its network, all of whom were very knowledgeable on the subject and provided me with some valuable insight.
Eager to brush up on my knowledge, I used this visit to Paradigm’s headquarters to take a crash course in custom installation setups, and I have walked away convinced that I need to cut some holes in my walls and ceilings.
Paradigm talked me through its Ci Elite V2, Ci Pro V2, and Ci Home V2 speaker ranges, which include everything from powerful speakers that are essentially floorstanders that fit into your walls, to in-ceiling speakers the size of dinner plates made to be deployed throughout your house for a whole-home multiroom music system.
Those height speakers are, of course, also perfect for delivering Dolby Atmos height effects, and the clean, minimal look of having in-wall speakers flanking a TV – Paradigm has this arrangement set up in its office – is rather appealing.
Not everyone wants bulky floorstanding speakers taking up space in their living room, which is totally understandable.
Stepping into Paradigm's custom home theatre room is what really sold me, though. The in-wall and ceiling speakers, and even discreet subwoofers, were concealed behind acoustically transparent material, and the room was finished with plush recliners and acoustic panelling to absorb unwanted sound.
Powering this room was a stack of Anthem AV amplifiers, and a Kaleidescape system handled the movies. I watched clips from The Greatest Showman, Midway and Yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed the big, enveloping and cinematic sound.
The encompassing low frequencies from the in-wall subwoofers placed within the walls around the room were particularly interesting. The bass produced from this system was spread evenly around the room, making for a more immersive and balanced experience.
While this is a much higher-specified room, of course, than anything in my house (especially my living room), it has inspired me to dig deeper into the world of custom home cinema and hi-fi installations.
I won't be cutting holes in my ceiling quite yet – I certainly don’t think my landlord would appreciate that – but it has given me some ideas for our home cinema testing room…
MORE:
Check out our picks for the best surround sound systems
As well as the best AV receivers
