Hi everyone. I wanted to share an experience I had with a pair of Paradigm Studio 100 v3’s I recently purchased. When I got them home, I realized one of the tweeters was working but putting out half the volume compared to the other one :sigh: Of course, I only notice these things after the sale... So I called Paradigm to buy a replacement (# 2030700013). Turns out Paradigm no longer has direct replacements for v3 :tears: But, they did have tweeters for Studio 100 v4/v5s (# 2030800005, description: “Tweeter GLD-05 STUDIO v4/v5”, $73 each without shipping). After some searching, I found that the tweeters in the Studio 100 v3 and v4 are physically identical on the outside except for the dome color (silver for v3, brownish silver for v4), and they use the exact same crossover frequencies. I figured the v4/v5 tweeters would work so I ordered a pair. I also considered ordering the beryllium signature tweeters that others have successfully swapped into Studio 100s, but those cost too much compared to what I paid for these speakers.
I found that the v4/v5 tweeter is a very simple direct bolt-in into the v3; Paradigm could not have made it easier to remove/replace the tweeters. I started by replacing only the tweeter in the “bad” speaker and left the “good” speaker alone. I listened to the pair that way for a week and noticed no difference in sound at all between the v3 and v4/v5 tweeter. The volume, quality, imagining, etc. were all equal. When listening to the pair, I was never drawn to one speaker or the other, the sound was balanced. Did I mention these speakers sound awesome?!! Eventually I replaced the “good” tweeter too, but really it was not necessary to do that. In summary I would not call this swap an “upgrade”... in my opinion it is essentially a direct replacement part. The only issue for some might be the different dome color. Now it looked to me like one could swap the silver colored v3 dome/voice coil into the v4/v5 magnet to get the correct “look”. The dome/voice coil and magnet are held together by three screws and come apart easily. Paradigm still has domes for v3. I didn’t try this and chose to keep the brownish-silver domes.
After the successful replacement, I took the bad v3 tweeter apart to see what the problem was. The voice coil was stuck on one side, and initially I thought it must be melted in place there. When I finally got the voice coil out with pliers, the coil windings looked fine, just mangled from me forcing it out. However the pole piece was now stuck to the magnet. So as far as I can tell, the root cause of the problem was that pole piece broke off and pinned the voice coil between the pole piece and the magnet on one side, which I think explains why the tweeter was working and sounded good but with diminished volume.
I hope this information allows someone to keep their Studio 100 v3’s running for years to come :thmbsp:
I found that the v4/v5 tweeter is a very simple direct bolt-in into the v3; Paradigm could not have made it easier to remove/replace the tweeters. I started by replacing only the tweeter in the “bad” speaker and left the “good” speaker alone. I listened to the pair that way for a week and noticed no difference in sound at all between the v3 and v4/v5 tweeter. The volume, quality, imagining, etc. were all equal. When listening to the pair, I was never drawn to one speaker or the other, the sound was balanced. Did I mention these speakers sound awesome?!! Eventually I replaced the “good” tweeter too, but really it was not necessary to do that. In summary I would not call this swap an “upgrade”... in my opinion it is essentially a direct replacement part. The only issue for some might be the different dome color. Now it looked to me like one could swap the silver colored v3 dome/voice coil into the v4/v5 magnet to get the correct “look”. The dome/voice coil and magnet are held together by three screws and come apart easily. Paradigm still has domes for v3. I didn’t try this and chose to keep the brownish-silver domes.
After the successful replacement, I took the bad v3 tweeter apart to see what the problem was. The voice coil was stuck on one side, and initially I thought it must be melted in place there. When I finally got the voice coil out with pliers, the coil windings looked fine, just mangled from me forcing it out. However the pole piece was now stuck to the magnet. So as far as I can tell, the root cause of the problem was that pole piece broke off and pinned the voice coil between the pole piece and the magnet on one side, which I think explains why the tweeter was working and sounded good but with diminished volume.
I hope this information allows someone to keep their Studio 100 v3’s running for years to come :thmbsp:
