The woofers cross over to the midrange unit at about 200Hz, with symmetrical third-order acoustic slopes. Their general output is a little higher than the reference level—this will be due partly to the nearfield measurement technique, which assumes a 2pi environment for the radiating surfaces—but the drivers are well-behaved above their passband. The midrange and low-treble regions are smooth on-axis, but the tweeter is a little "hot" in its top octave.

Fig.4 shows the response of the 1997 sample of the Studio/100, averaged across a 30 degrees window on the tweeter axis and spliced to the complex sum of the low-frequency nearfield drive-unit responses. Fig.5 is a similar plot taken for the 2000 sample of the loudspeaker. In broad terms, the responses of the two speakers are very similar. But if you look closely, the v.2 has a smoother, flatter treble region, and better-damped low frequencies. Both aspects tie in nicely with RD's auditioning comments.

Fig.4 Paradigm Studio/100, anechoic response on-axis at 50", averaged across 30 degrees horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the complex sum of the nearfield midrange, woofer, and port responses plotted below 300Hz.

Fig.5 Paradigm Studio/100 v.2, anechoic response on-axis at 50", averaged across 30 degrees horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the complex sum of the nearfield midrange, woofer, and port responses plotted below 300Hz.

The Paradigm's lateral dispersion (fig.6) is generally well-controlled, though there is a slight off-axis flare around 6kHz, which might make the sound too "zippy" in small, underdamped rooms. I note that RD found the speaker's mid-treble balance very neutral, however. Vertically (fig.7), the Studio/100's balance doesn't change much over quite a wide window—just as well, given that the tweeter is a rather high 42" from the floor.

Fig.6 Paradigm Studio/100 v.2, lateral response family at 50", normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back to front: differences in response 90 degrees-5 degrees off-axis, reference response, differences in response 5 degrees-90 degrees off-axis.

Fig.7 Paradigm Studio/100 v.2, vertical response family at 50", from back to front: differences in response 15 degrees-5 degrees above axis, reference response, differences in response 5 degrees-15 degrees below axis.