As for the woofers, the H in 120H stands for hybrid. Sure enough, the six CarbonX bass drivers—three per tower—are driven by built-in ICEpower class-D amps that put out 1000W continuous and up to 2000W on dynamic peaks. (Of course, that means you must plug the speakers into a nearby electrical receptacle. And you'll still need a standard stereo amplifier to power the midrange drivers and tweeters.) The midrange and bass drivers are decoupled from the cabinet by the aforementioned "Advanced Shock-Mount Isolation Mounting System." Similar technology is employed in the speaker's spikes.
Fi(r)st impressions
During break-in, for about 100 hours, I drove the Paradigms with a Peachtree Nova 300 amplifier. Later, most critical listening was done with my MacBook Pro running Roon feeding an Auralic Vega DAC. For power, I alternated between a recapped Krell FPB200c and a 30th-anniversary-edition Margules U-280SC tube amp. I usually preferred the latter. I found the 120Hs trickier to place than most speakers, but the glass-half-full reality is that they're responsive to placement, and spending time shuffling them around pays off nicely. For a week and a half, I kept moving the speakers inches and millimeters. They finally ended up 5' 10" apart and almost 4' from the front wall, with a toe-in of perhaps 5°. In my room, the sweet spot was about 8' from the front baffles.
Paradigm Managing Director John Bagby told me that because of the tweeters' new waveguide, "they have more high-frequency energy on-axis than previous Paradigm designs, which makes them friendlier in today's more 'active' environments. But due to the new dispersion profile from the waveguide, combined with the downfiring port, the Founder will often perform best with a different position and toe-in than many other designs. If you started in your usual spot, that could explain the need for tweaking." The bass from these Paradigms is wild, in the best ways. How many practical speakers do you know that reach down to 18Hz? (footnote 2) On my first evening with the 120H, I ambled off to the kitchen to make a cappuccino and left the music playing. The track list advanced to "Planners & Thinkers" by Metropolis (Tidal, FLAC, 16/44.1), and from nearly 70' away, I could not only hear the subterranean rumble; through two open doorways, the deepest bass notes slammed me in the chest as I frothed my milk.
Coffee in hand, I returned and was chuffed to discover that the quality of the bass kept pace with the quantity. Later on, with some tracks, I did hear a little too much bass, but it was in the bottom octave, not juiced midbass and upper bass. It was the balance that was thrilling, and the continuity up and down the frequency range. Everything sounded "together," coherent, right. Bass-wise, the Founders, on spikes, acted like a velvet sledgehammer or an iron fist in a silk glove, if you like that sort of thing. I do.
How, I asked Bagby, do these not particularly huge speakers achieve such a prodigious bottom end? What happened to the old audiophile wisecrack that "there's no replacement for displacement"? The simple answer, he wrote back, is more watts and powerful motors. "The magnetics on the 120H are larger, closer to the size of a subwoofer, than what you'll see with the majority of woofers. That allows a very linear response at extreme excursions. Combined, the three 8" woofers give us the power handling and excursion necessary" to go toe to toe with speakers like my current reference, the full-range Tekton Moabs, which have two pairs of 12" woofers.
As the 120Hs worked their way through a few of the playlists I use to evaluate audio performance, I read up on the Anthem Room Correction software the company calls ARC Genesis. This onboard DSP feature is found in none of the other Founder models (because the others are all passive). The technology was originally developed for Anthem, Paradigm's sister brand. With the provided microphone and stand, you measure at least five points at and around the listening position as the speakers play frequency sweeps. The app then corrects the sub-300Hz room modes it encounters—slaying the peaks and nulls, as it were—and creates a profile that you can wirelessly upload to your ARC-equipped hi-fi device, in this case the 120Hs.
My Mac and the latest ARC software didn't get along at first. During measurements, ARC would randomly stop "seeing" the mike. Sometimes, virtual buttons and text went AWOL from my PowerBook screen, to the puzzlement of a very patient gentleman in Paradigm tech support. Eventually, things seemed to have gone okay, but I admit I found the effects of room correction to be meager. With a good number of recordings, I still perceived too much energy in the bottom octave. This tempted me to play with Roon's parametric equalizer and sculpt away that bass spike. When I told Jim Austin, Stereophile's editor, of my EQ exploits, he was nonplussed: "Why are you using Roon's clumsy algorithms when the 120H has built-in room correction?"
Good question. Back to the drawing board I went. After lots of headscratching, I finally figured out that my 120Hs had not been paired to each other within the ARC software. Consequently, I'd been hearing only half of ARC's benefits, at most. During a 90-minute phone call, Paradigm's tech support straightened out the mess and got me up and running for real.
Me ears are alight
I'd already taken a shine to the 120Hs, but now they consistently wowed me. I was startled when room correction—the elimination of a nasty peak around 30Hz, mostly—widened and deepened the soundstage. Fun and superlatives ensued. With electronica, I don't think I've ever heard a more satisfying speaker in my room than the Anthem-corrected Founder 120H. I couldn't stop playing Yello, whose beautifully produced dance tracks shine on the Paradigms. Standouts were the albums Touch Yello (16/44.1 FLAC, Qobuz) and Toy (24/48 MQA, Tidal). Acoustic-music purists may argue that Yello's mostly digital playground is scarcely suitable for judging high-end equipment. For them, only acoustic instruments recorded in nonvirtual spaces will do when sizing up sonic purity. I understand the argument, but it feels immaterial when music delivers this much joy, elation, and giddiness. Keyboardist Boris Blank's tunes aren't philosophically deep or even particularly meaningful, and Dieter Meier's sleazy vocals are an acquired taste. But the wit is understated and winking, and the beats are irresistible. Most of all, there's exceptional artistry in the combined hues of sounds and in the incredible attention to detail given to each instrument's recorded performance, whether physical or virtual. For instance, on Yello's "Part Love" from Touch Yello (16/44.1 FLAC, Qobuz), starting at 2:27 there's a very simple, repeated sax riff of just three notes: D, D#, and E. The D# is panned just a smidge to the right compared to the other two notes, and the Paradigms let you hear it easily. It's one of the auditory Easter eggs that Blank likes to layer into his mixes.
I was also impressed by the lifelike trumpet on the duo's "Vertical Vision" on the same album, played by Till Brönner. The higher horn notes on that track can sound piercing and aggressive on lesser gear, but the Paradigms brought the instrument to heel without robbing it of bite.
Opposite Yello's busy, waggish fare, there's Leon Bridges, an earnest Texas soul singer who likes his tracks sparse. "River," from his debut album Coming Home (24/96 FLAC, Qobuz), features only a softly strummed acoustic guitar, a tambourine, Bridges's solo vocal, and a small choir. It's a soul-stirring performance, recorded live in the studio by the sound of it. The Paradigms tangle nothing up, providing textbook transparency. That PPA Lens seems to act like Windex on a pane, removing grime and inviting you to relax and luxuriate in the view.
A side note: On "River," there is no deep bass for the Paradigms to tackle. That the speakers render the song so effectively—and affectingly—demonstrates that their bottom end isn't all that's impressive. The bass may be their calling card, but they're accomplished all-rounders.
Here's one more example of how satisfying the Founders are. On some systems, ride cymbals played with a brush sound like white noise, the drummer's taps barely discernible as separate events. With these speakers, there's a crispness to the treble, neither forward nor recessed, that renders delicate cymbal work without smearing. Chico Hamilton's ride cymbal on his quintet's "Passin' Thru," from the album of the same name (16/44.1, Qobuz), is all there.
My main criticism of the 120H, and it's mild, is that with most recordings, I didn't find them completely involving at lower levels. They need to be played with some oomph to make recordings come alive. Below 75dB at the listening position, there wasn't always enough kick, excitement, or presence. For me, this wasn't a problem: I like my music loud.
Conclusion
Though nine grand is no small sum, there's outstanding value here. The 120H's ferocious, nonbloated bass removes any need for separate subwoofers, subwoofer cables, and floorspace, and you'll save yourself the frustration of trying to make main speakers and subs play together seamlessly. Plus, the Paradigms are no one-trick pony; they proved first-rate with every kind of music I played. Finally—the cherry on top—the 120H's built-in ARC room correction is a godsend for audiophiles with challenging listening environments.
I'll have to beg my friend Nick's forgiveness, but these speakers are, in a word, awesome.
Footnote 2: 18Hz is a DIN measurement that takes the likely contribution of a real-world room into account. Measured in an anechoic chamber, the 120H goes down to 22Hz.
During break-in, for about 100 hours, I drove the Paradigms with a Peachtree Nova 300 amplifier. Later, most critical listening was done with my MacBook Pro running Roon feeding an Auralic Vega DAC. For power, I alternated between a recapped Krell FPB200c and a 30th-anniversary-edition Margules U-280SC tube amp. I usually preferred the latter. I found the 120Hs trickier to place than most speakers, but the glass-half-full reality is that they're responsive to placement, and spending time shuffling them around pays off nicely. For a week and a half, I kept moving the speakers inches and millimeters. They finally ended up 5' 10" apart and almost 4' from the front wall, with a toe-in of perhaps 5°. In my room, the sweet spot was about 8' from the front baffles.
Paradigm Managing Director John Bagby told me that because of the tweeters' new waveguide, "they have more high-frequency energy on-axis than previous Paradigm designs, which makes them friendlier in today's more 'active' environments. But due to the new dispersion profile from the waveguide, combined with the downfiring port, the Founder will often perform best with a different position and toe-in than many other designs. If you started in your usual spot, that could explain the need for tweaking." The bass from these Paradigms is wild, in the best ways. How many practical speakers do you know that reach down to 18Hz? (footnote 2) On my first evening with the 120H, I ambled off to the kitchen to make a cappuccino and left the music playing. The track list advanced to "Planners & Thinkers" by Metropolis (Tidal, FLAC, 16/44.1), and from nearly 70' away, I could not only hear the subterranean rumble; through two open doorways, the deepest bass notes slammed me in the chest as I frothed my milk.
Coffee in hand, I returned and was chuffed to discover that the quality of the bass kept pace with the quantity. Later on, with some tracks, I did hear a little too much bass, but it was in the bottom octave, not juiced midbass and upper bass. It was the balance that was thrilling, and the continuity up and down the frequency range. Everything sounded "together," coherent, right. Bass-wise, the Founders, on spikes, acted like a velvet sledgehammer or an iron fist in a silk glove, if you like that sort of thing. I do.
How, I asked Bagby, do these not particularly huge speakers achieve such a prodigious bottom end? What happened to the old audiophile wisecrack that "there's no replacement for displacement"? The simple answer, he wrote back, is more watts and powerful motors. "The magnetics on the 120H are larger, closer to the size of a subwoofer, than what you'll see with the majority of woofers. That allows a very linear response at extreme excursions. Combined, the three 8" woofers give us the power handling and excursion necessary" to go toe to toe with speakers like my current reference, the full-range Tekton Moabs, which have two pairs of 12" woofers.
Good question. Back to the drawing board I went. After lots of headscratching, I finally figured out that my 120Hs had not been paired to each other within the ARC software. Consequently, I'd been hearing only half of ARC's benefits, at most. During a 90-minute phone call, Paradigm's tech support straightened out the mess and got me up and running for real.
Me ears are alightI'd already taken a shine to the 120Hs, but now they consistently wowed me. I was startled when room correction—the elimination of a nasty peak around 30Hz, mostly—widened and deepened the soundstage. Fun and superlatives ensued. With electronica, I don't think I've ever heard a more satisfying speaker in my room than the Anthem-corrected Founder 120H. I couldn't stop playing Yello, whose beautifully produced dance tracks shine on the Paradigms. Standouts were the albums Touch Yello (16/44.1 FLAC, Qobuz) and Toy (24/48 MQA, Tidal). Acoustic-music purists may argue that Yello's mostly digital playground is scarcely suitable for judging high-end equipment. For them, only acoustic instruments recorded in nonvirtual spaces will do when sizing up sonic purity. I understand the argument, but it feels immaterial when music delivers this much joy, elation, and giddiness. Keyboardist Boris Blank's tunes aren't philosophically deep or even particularly meaningful, and Dieter Meier's sleazy vocals are an acquired taste. But the wit is understated and winking, and the beats are irresistible. Most of all, there's exceptional artistry in the combined hues of sounds and in the incredible attention to detail given to each instrument's recorded performance, whether physical or virtual. For instance, on Yello's "Part Love" from Touch Yello (16/44.1 FLAC, Qobuz), starting at 2:27 there's a very simple, repeated sax riff of just three notes: D, D#, and E. The D# is panned just a smidge to the right compared to the other two notes, and the Paradigms let you hear it easily. It's one of the auditory Easter eggs that Blank likes to layer into his mixes.
Opposite Yello's busy, waggish fare, there's Leon Bridges, an earnest Texas soul singer who likes his tracks sparse. "River," from his debut album Coming Home (24/96 FLAC, Qobuz), features only a softly strummed acoustic guitar, a tambourine, Bridges's solo vocal, and a small choir. It's a soul-stirring performance, recorded live in the studio by the sound of it. The Paradigms tangle nothing up, providing textbook transparency. That PPA Lens seems to act like Windex on a pane, removing grime and inviting you to relax and luxuriate in the view.
A side note: On "River," there is no deep bass for the Paradigms to tackle. That the speakers render the song so effectively—and affectingly—demonstrates that their bottom end isn't all that's impressive. The bass may be their calling card, but they're accomplished all-rounders.
Here's one more example of how satisfying the Founders are. On some systems, ride cymbals played with a brush sound like white noise, the drummer's taps barely discernible as separate events. With these speakers, there's a crispness to the treble, neither forward nor recessed, that renders delicate cymbal work without smearing. Chico Hamilton's ride cymbal on his quintet's "Passin' Thru," from the album of the same name (16/44.1, Qobuz), is all there.
My main criticism of the 120H, and it's mild, is that with most recordings, I didn't find them completely involving at lower levels. They need to be played with some oomph to make recordings come alive. Below 75dB at the listening position, there wasn't always enough kick, excitement, or presence. For me, this wasn't a problem: I like my music loud.
ConclusionThough nine grand is no small sum, there's outstanding value here. The 120H's ferocious, nonbloated bass removes any need for separate subwoofers, subwoofer cables, and floorspace, and you'll save yourself the frustration of trying to make main speakers and subs play together seamlessly. Plus, the Paradigms are no one-trick pony; they proved first-rate with every kind of music I played. Finally—the cherry on top—the 120H's built-in ARC room correction is a godsend for audiophiles with challenging listening environments.
Footnote 2: 18Hz is a DIN measurement that takes the likely contribution of a real-world room into account. Measured in an anechoic chamber, the 120H goes down to 22Hz.
