Paradigm Premier v2 5.1 speaker package review

Canadian audio brand Paradigm will be a familiar name for many when it comes to home cinema sound. Especially to those au fait with the custom install market, as the company has a wide array of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers for serious home cinema enthusiasts.

We are told by our office's facilities department that, unfortunately, we can’t take a hammer and hacksaw to our AV testing room’s walls, so it’s the new Premier v2 speaker range that has caught our attention.

This 5.1 speaker package opts for a more traditional route, mixing stately floorstanding and standmount speakers for a surround sound experience that you can add to any room – provided you have the space.

With a name like “Premier”, it seems as though these speakers are made for the red carpet and should, therefore, take cinematic sound in their stride. But there is a host of five-star speaker systems from Dali, KEF and Wharfedale that have recently upped the ante in this sector; so can this Paradigm package keep up?

Price

UK retailers aren't currently offering this specific system as a complete package, so you’ll need to purchase the components separately.

For the set-up we are testing here, you will need the Premier 720F v2 floorstanders (£2499/pair), the 220B v2 standmount surrounds (£1299/pair), the 520 LCR v2 centre channel (£999), and the Defiance S12 subwoofer (£1850). This brings the system to a total price of £6647.

In the US, things change slightly as Paradigm sells each speaker separately. The 720F v2 comes in at $1000 each, whereas the 220B v2 sells for $550; remember you’ll need to order two of each. The 520 LCR v2 costs $900, and the Defiance S12 comes in at $1600; taking the full price of the package to $5600.

Things are slightly simpler in Australia, where these speakers go back to being sold in pairs. Here you’ll find the 720F v2 for AU$3799, the 220B v2 for AU$1999, the 520 LCR v2 for AU$1599, and the Defiance S12 sub for AU$2999. That comes to a total of AU$10,396.

There haven’t really been any other speaker packages at this price to enter our AV testing room recently. The Premier v2 5.1 package sits squarely between two Award-winning speaker systems: the KEF R Meta 5.1 (£10,499 / $13,200 / AU$19,400), and the Dali Sonik 5 5.1 (£2199 / $4800 / AU$4596).

The Paradigm package, therefore, has to outperform the Dali to succeed. While beating the KEF would be a pleasant surprise, we certainly don’t expect it, given the considerable price jump for the R Meta 5.1.

Design and build

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If there’s one area where Paradigm has hit the nail on the head, it's in the design of these speakers. This is an eye-catching, well-built and premium-looking cohort of speakers which will look suitably stylish in most living rooms and home cinema spaces.

All components match nicely, with a cohesive design across the range. The most notable design element is the spiral-style grille found on the front and surround speakers, which also serves as a visual motif across most of Paradigm’s speaker ranges.

We are also fans of the protruding industrial-looking feet that extend from the bottom corners of the 720F v2 floorstanders. They give these speakers a touch of individuality. And they provide more than just a certain look; these "Outrigger Shock-Mount Isolation Feet", as Paradigm calls them, work to physically decouple the speaker enclosure from the floor, to mitigate unwanted vibrations.

Speaking of the 720F v2 speakers, these sizeable three-way rear-ported floorstanders measure 100 x 32 x 43cm (hwd), making them fairly comparable to the KEF R7 Meta speakers from the Award-winning R Meta system. They are slightly lighter at 26kg per speaker, too.

The 220B v2 are an equally substantial set of surround speakers by standmount standards. These two-way ported speakers measure 37 x 21 x 33cm (hwd) and weigh 9.1kg. These surrounds require a sturdy stand, and there is no keyhole mount for wall mounting.

Moving on to the 520 LCR v2, this three-way sealed centre-channel speaker measures 21 x 59 x 31cm (hwd), and weighs 14kg. It should sit beneath a wall-mounted TV or projector screen without too much hassle, but you may find it a squeeze to fit it within a traditional media unit.

The Defiance S12 subwoofer rounds things out in this hefty system. This sub measures 38 x 40 x 43cm (hwd), and weighs 24kg, making it more substantial than the KEF KC92 subwoofer.

Our review system sports the Walnut finish, although you can also have the system in a Piano Black, Black Walnut or Satin White finish. The Defiance S12 subwoofer, on the other hand, is available only in Gloss Black.

Features

This speaker package is packed full of Paradigm’s proprietary driver technology across all of the components.

You’ll find a 25mm AL-MAC Ceramic Dome tweeter loaded by a heavily dished waveguide on both the 720F v2 floorstanders and 220B v2 standmounts. AL-MAC refers to a rigid, lightweight compound of aluminium, magnesium, and ceramic used in the dome diaphragm of this high-frequency driver.

Paradigm claims that the mix of materials was chosen to produce stable and lifelike high-frequency effects, while the waveguide “precisely shapes output to focus sound on the listening area while reducing unwanted room reflections”.

The centre channel changes things slightly by placing the same tweeter within a coaxial 15.2cm AL-MAG midrange cone. It features a 50mm high-temp multilayered voice coil wound around an Apical (a polyamide plastic film) former designed to handle high thermal stress without deforming.

The fronts and surrounds also share the same midrange driver found on the centre channel, though it sits behind a Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA) Lens on these speakers. This unique spiral-patterned waveguide is designed to ensure that all frequencies will reach your ears simultaneously for a more harmonious sound.

It also acts as a physical shield and acoustic filter designed to block out-of-phase signals; Paradigm says that we should notice a more three-dimensional soundscape as a result.

You’ll also find two 15.2cm CARBON-X Unibody Cone bass drivers on the floorstanding speakers and centre channel. These unibody cones are designed for “maximum strength and minimal mass”, with Paradigm citing deep and controlled low end even at high volumes. They are placed towards the bottom of each floorstanding speaker, and they flank the tweeter on the centre channel.

Such drive-unit consistency across the speaker package is a good way to maximise sonic cohesion across the channels. It’s also worth noting here that the fronts, surrounds and centres are all bi-wireable.

Rounding out the package, the Defiance S12 subwoofer sports a 30.5cm anodised aluminium cone, which sits within a steel chassis for enhanced rigidity and stability. It is powered by 800W of Class D amplification, and Paradigm claims its frequency range can reach as deep as 16Hz.

This powered subwoofer features support for the company’s ARC Genesis room correction software, which can also be found on Anthem AVRs. The microphone and software are sold separately, and you’ll need a Mac or PC to complete the process. It does mean, however, that the subwoofer can be calibrated separately to the rest of your speakers.

When it comes to connectivity, the S12 offers a range of physical connections, including a balanced XLR, speaker-level inputs or RCA phono inputs for connecting to hi-fi systems, or an LFE RCA input for connecting to an AVR. Unusually, Paradigm includes a wireless transmitter in the box for connecting this subwoofer wirelessly.

Sound quality

While an exhaustive list of proprietary technologies across the drive units is impressive on paper, what really counts is how this speaker package performs.

We have it hooked up to our reference Denon AVC-A1H home cinema amplifier to power the system, and have applied the Audyssey X32 room correction system. We are using our trusty Oppo UDP-230 4K Blu-ray player to play cinematic content.

It is first worth mentioning this speaker system’s strengths, as there are many to note. Playing F1: The Movie, we are met with a big, spacious and powerful sound, with the opening providing a serious soundscape of cinematic audio. Car engines roar, announcers’ voices boom, and tyres screech in a muscular first outing for the system.

This is underpinned by an impressive level of detail, with the Premier v2 system refusing to leave any small sonic detail out of the overall presentation. This extends to voices coming through the centre channel, as both Stack and Mary’s voices during a fraught conversation in Sinners are presented with clarity and directness, which means no dialogue is missed within the greater mix.

Continuing the scene, the medley sequence, which features music from past and present, highlights the sonic cohesion between the components of the package.

Everything gels together with excellent consistency and fluidity, with no noticeable gaps, and the surround channels blend in seamlessly without distracting us. Instead, the system delivers a well-constructed bubble of sound around us, with surprisingly impressive dispersion that even fills out some sound above our seating position, despite the lack of dedicated height channels.

And we have to commend the overall highlight of the package – the subwoofer. The Defiance S12 pumps out rich, deep and controlled bass, meaning it hardly breaks a sweat with the tricky chapter two sequence of Blade Runner 2049.

The subwoofer digs deep without introducing unwanted fuzz or distortion, and its top-notch timing ensures tension is built throughout the sequence effectively.

If there is one takeaway you may have noticed from the Paradigm system, it’s that it's big and powerful. While that’s an asset, the system unfortunately leans a bit too far into the broad, heavy and punchy sound, and doesn't pay as much attention to sonic subtleties.

There’s an immediate sense that low-level dynamics are an issue, as voices are lacking in expression, and emotion isn’t communicated as clearly as we would like.

The hushed and emotional conversation in Sinners that we mentioned previously sounds like it’s being yelled at us, despite volume levels being modest, with Stack’s mic-drop line of “that I love you? That I think about you every day?” coming across as icy rather than vulnerable or heartfelt.

The flattening of voices and a lack of natural warmth means that we lose the character and inflexion of dialogue quite easily. Yelena’s cheeky one-liners in Thunderbolts* can sound dry rather than playful and sarcastic, and voices sometimes pierce through action sequences in a way that’s not wholly natural.

The longer that we listen to the system, the more we find it overbearing and insistent. Despite plenty of run-in time, there’s a hardness to the sound that doesn’t relent regardless of whether it's a bombastic action sequence or a softly spoken dialogue-led scene.

This experience extends to stereo music when we just have the floorstanders running.

There is plenty of power, rich bass and clarity, but Saviour Complex by Phoebe Bridgers feels aggressive for a softly sung track. Punchier tracks, such as Kiss The Ring from Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two soundtrack, lend themselves better to the full-on sound, but even this can feel overdone.

If spectacle and punch are what you’re after, the Paradigm package may be plenty for you. But when it comes to nuance, finer expression in voices, and conveying emotion, the Paradigm struggles to let go of that punchy, “in your face” attitude, which can compromise the emotive intention of dialogue.

Verdict

Paradigm’s Premier v2 5.1 speaker package sports a refined look and more proprietary speaker technology than you can shake a stick at, but its overly assertive nature lets it down.

That’s not to say it’s a sonic write-off; there’s tons of detail to glean from this system, and the subwoofer is genuinely excellent, but punch and power need a softer edge to create a holistically cinematic experience.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Design 5
• Features 5

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Check out our Dali Sonik 5 5.1 review and KEF R Meta 5.1 Speaker System review