Paradigm 11se MkIII's upstage Sunfire sub (and a dozen tornados)...WOW

[tomlinmgt]

My friend and I came into some 11se MkIII's for a pretty good price so we went in on them together with the intention of flipping. Last night at his place we biamped them a with pair of Roksan Caspian amps and, since he's in between preamps, just used his Sony ES cdp as the pre. I'll start off by saying we were both taken by surprise at how damn good they sounded. Now, he has Studio 40's and I have 5se's and we're both fans of Paradigm's products so we expected them to sound better than decent.

Oh, they sounded A LOT better than decent.

The 11's are just downright fantastic sounding speakers. The driver array is tall enough that they created a soundstage that could compete with my Magnepan MMGs and had a sort of ambience to them that I really, really liked. His room is acoustically a tad bright but the slightly dark tone of the 11's fit in there perfectly. Great dynamics, great imaging...just a wonderful presentation that my friend and I enjoyed the hell out of. And cool to look at, to boot.

Now, the big surprise came when he turned on his Sunfire True sub. No difference. He walked over and cranked up the output a little more. Still no difference. He cranked it up to about 8 before you could hear additional bass and by then the amount of bass was simply out of balance. It really was impressive to hear the 11's provide sufficient bass, with no EQ or loudness, that a Sunfire True sub had to go to 80% output before it could be heard. I don't think there are a lot of speakers with 8" woofers (alright, FOUR eight inch woofers) that can do that. Pretty impressive if you ask me. So much so, if fact, that with the sweet sounds coming from the 11se's and a little Tito's vodka we forgot all about the twisters that came to town. :smilemad:

 

[budgetaudio6]

Not surprised that four 8 inch woofers out perform a sub.
Ive had a pair of KLH 8840s that far out produced a JBL 15 or 18 inch sub in a basket ball court. A small gym. The KLHs have 4 8 inch woofers per cab. out put was and is prodigious.

 

[kydog]

I own a pair of the Paradigm 7se MkII's and let me tell you...No sub needed!! They really go deep and image like you won't believe. I don't like a lot of bass to begin with but the bass is not boomy, Tight and accurate

 

[tomlinmgt]

Not surprised that four 8 inch woofers out perform a sub.
Ive had a pair of KLH 8840s that far out produced a JBL 15 or 18 inch sub in a basket ball court. A small gym. The KLHs have 4 8 inch woofers per cab. out put was and is prodigious.

Hold on now, not....not just any sub. Those little Sunfire True subs are pretty friggin' impressive. That Bob Carver designed plate amp puts out an enormous amount of power....seems I read like over 2000 watts or something ridiculous like that. No sir, not your garden variety 8" sub here.

 

[budgetaudio6]

Not knocking you here. And please dont take it that way. But the 8840 is a 50 pound speaker. And the woofers take up half that weight.

And i dont doubt the sunfire has that power. Im familiar with carver producing big power with his designs.

There is a member on here that has those same speakers, if he hasnt sold them. Ill see if i can find it in my posts and link it here.

 

[moejr]

Anyone have a picture of the KLH 8840's?

 

[budgetaudio6]

here ya go.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=416903

 

[krisjay]

I came into a pair of the 3se MKlll's, I don't really see a need for a sub even with the 3se's, pretty solid bass. I am pretty impressed with these speakers, my first Paradigm's, I am actually running 2 pairs of Paradigm's, also running a pair of the Atom v3's along with the 3se's and the total sound is pretty fantastic. Would love to hear a pair of the 11se's.

 

[whoaru99]

Interesting. I have a pair of Studio 100v2 and while they're a great sounding speaker, I think they benefit from subs. 'Course they're Paradigm subs too so perhaps they just work better together. Or, maybe, it's just different strokes?

 

[geiman]

I have a pair of 11SEmkIII as well. Like tomlinmgt said, "No woofer required"

 

[gargantua]

I own a pair of the Paradigm 7se MkII's and let me tell you...No sub needed!! They really go deep and image like you won't believe. I don't like a lot of bass to begin with but the bass is not boomy, Tight and accurate

I've got 7SE MKIII's and couldn't agree more. They go insanely low and are very detailed and clean. It's hard to find a speaker that really works well for most kinds of music and big movie explosions/sound effects but the Paradigms really do a good job.

I recently placed mine on Auralex Subdude HD isolation platforms in an attempt to cut down on some transfer to the floors/walls and they've come alive again .

 

[thedelihaus]

Specifications-

DESIGN:
3-driver, 2-way bass reflex, quasi-3rd order resistive port.
CROSSOVER:
2an order electro/acoustic at 1,8 kHz
HIGH FREQUENCY DRIVER:
25 mm (1") TTD™ treated textile dome with aluminum former, ferro-fluid cooled and damped.
BASS/ MIDRANGE DRIVER:
2 x 165 mm (6½") with diecast chassis, polypropylene cone and Apical™ former.
PERFORMANCE
LOW FREQUENCY EXTENSION:
34 Hz (DIN)
FREQUENCY RESPONSE;
> On Axis (0⁰): ±2 dB from 50 Hz - 20 kHz
> Off Axis (30⁰): ±2 dB from 50 Hz - 15 kHz
SENSITIVITY-ROOM/ANECHOIC:
92 dB/89 dB
SUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE:
15 - 175 watts
MAX INPUT POWER:
120 watts
NOMINAL/MIN IMPEDANCE:
6 ohms / 4 ohms
PHYSICAL:
INTERNAL VOLUME: 46 litres (1,6 cuf)
HEIGHT: 88 cm (34⅝ in)
WIDTH: 21 cm (8¼ in)
DEPTH: 38 cm (14¾ in)
WEIGHT: 39 kg (86 lbs)
FINISHES:
Black Oak, Oak, Black Gloss, Rosewood Gloss

 

[voodmon2]

11se mk3's

Had stacked new large advent of the walnut bullnose variety for a couple of years, then came across a pair of 3se mk3's for 70 bucks with 13 inch stands, so impressed I flipped the advents all four to the same guy for 275, he bought two then came back for the other two.. Ok, the 3's are a little tubby and need to be away from the wall for me 12 inches or so.. any how a pair of 11se mk 3's appeared on used victoria for 400, got them for 340, no jumpers or spikes and the black vinyl needed some tlc on the rear edge of one speaker. Love them!! far more open than the 3's, how ever when I bi-wired them, as in ab'd them, one is working as in jumped mode, single wired , any ideas, they are great and had bean in storage for a long time when i got them, the bass horrified me at first, way to much, but now that they are more broken in are behaving very nicely indeed with my little yamaha rx 596 and hey!! no poo poooing that little reciever it's a sweet one.

 

[nexus]

I own a pair of the Paradigm 7se MkII's and let me tell you...No sub needed!! They really go deep and image like you won't believe. I don't like a lot of bass to begin with but the bass is not boomy, Tight and accurate

i don't use ported speakers but i always thought that model paradigm was among the best examples of ported box speakers. VERY nice!

as far as competing with a sunfire sub...i would have to hear that to believe it!

 

[tomlinmgt]

i don't use ported speakers but i always thought that model paradigm was among the best examples of ported box speakers. VERY nice!

as far as competing with a sunfire sub...i would have to hear that to believe it!

Man, I'm tellin' ya'....my friend and I were both left slack jawed. Mighty impressive, fo' sho'.

 

[charles 1973]

I'm not surprised, IMO Paradigm makes some of the finest speakers avaliable for the money. I also like PSB and Monitor Audio Speakers in the "Reasonable" price bracket.

IMO the benefit of a Sub is not to Produce more Bass (except for HT use). A lot of Standmount and Tower Stereo Speaker's in the 1.5+ Cu. Ft. range are quite capable of producing very sasifying Bass with a Single 7" Woofer. The benefit of a Sub means I can Controll the amount of bass from the system, and by shifting the Low Bass away from the the main speakers it's lets me place them closer to walls and corners without screwing up the bass. I bought my Energy S10.3 Sub specifically to reduce the bass output of my system. My Pro-22 Monitors were producing way Too Much Bass because they had to be placed to close to the corner. It was Overpowering the Midrange and HF's with one 7" Woofer (that goes down to 28 hz @ -1.5 db).