Review: Paradigm Reference Studio Esprit Speaker System

Remember the Sesame Street segment “One of These Things Is Not Like the Other”? Apply the game to Paradigm’s Reference Studio Series loudspeaker line, and it’s pretty easy to pick out the Esprit and Esprit C center as the things that just don’t belong. The much-heralded Studio Series lineup consists mostly of beefy bookshelves and imposing floorstanders that look like the serious performers they are. As the first on-wall models in the line, the new Esprit speakers are a bit sleeker and less imposing. But trust me, they’re no less serious about rendering good sound.

Despite some physical differences, the on-wall models clearly share the family DNA. For one, each Esprit speaker ($1,099 a piece) uses the same driver materials as the rest of the Studio line: a 1-inch gold anodized pure aluminum (G-PAL) dome tweeter, a 4.5-inch satin anodized pure aluminum (S-PAL) midrange cone, and two 7-inch mineral-filled co-polymer polypropylene bass cones. Despite measuring just 26.38 by 8.94 by 5.88 inches, the Studio Esprit weighs a solid 24 pounds, and the cabinet feels incredibly inert. The attractive design melds piano-black side panels with a brushed gray cabinet and black grille, a perfect complement to most current flat-panel TVs. (The speakers are also available in cherrywood/silver and rosenut/gray finishes).

The Esprit’s curved cabinet design demands that you either mount the speaker on the wall or purchase the optional GS-40 speaker stand. The supplied wall-mounting hardware is easy to install and includes two pieces: a wall bracket and an adjustable speaker bracket that allows you to fine-tune the speaker’s positioning – for instance, to angle it in toward the listening area, if desired. The Esprit C center has the same drivers, weight, and dimensions, but Paradigm changes the position of the drivers to suit its horizontal configuration. The center is also wall-mountable; or, if you prefer cabinet placement, you can use the supplied brace to hold the speaker in place. The instructions for assembling said brace are vague, and it’s the one piece whose build quality leaves something to be desired. The pieces don’t lock together, so the brace easily comes apart anytime you try to move the speaker. Paradigm is supposedly addressing this in future production runs.

To round out the 5.1-channel system, Paradigm sent along a pair of Studio ADP-590 bipolar surrounds ($679 each) and the Seismic 10 subwoofer ($1,499). Like the Esprit, the ADP-590 is a wall-mountable speaker that puts a 1-inch G-PAL tweeter and 4-inch S-PAL midrange driver on each side panel, with a single 7-inch woofer firing to the front. Compared with a direct-radiating surround speaker that aims the sound forward toward the listening position, this bipole sends more sound effects out along the walls to create a wider rear soundstage with less localizable effects. The Seismic 10 is a nice fit, size-wise, for this on-wall system: It’s about a 13-inch cube with a 10-inch woofer, dual passive radiators, and a 1,500-watt amplifier.

Walls and other room boundaries always affect a speaker’s sound, but they are especially relevent when discussing on-wall speakers. If a speaker is optimally tuned for on-wall placement and you choose to put it in a stand, away from the wall, it may not sound as good as it can. Some speaker manufacturers include a boundary-compensation switch in which you can manually tell the speaker whether you’ve mounted it on the wall or not. Paradigm has developed an automatic tool, called Automatic Boundary Effects Compensation (ABEC), in which the Esprit models automatically determine the type of placement and tailor their output accordingly to produce, in Paradigm’s words, “natural, uncolored” sound.

I’d say uncolored is an apt description of the Esprit system’s performance. With both music and movie demos, my notes are littered with the words “clean” and “precise,” due in large part to the speaker’s outstanding high-frequency reproduction. Whether it’s shell casings hitting the floor in The Matrix or the triangle in the “Ode to Joy” chapter of Immortal Beloved, high frequencies ring out, with airiness and purity. Even at high volumes, my brightest music demos didn’t veer into harsh or distorted territory. Action-sequence effects have great attack and immediacy, which successfully pulls you in to the movie, yet the system’s revealing nature also makes it easier to hear subtle background effects, like birds chirping in the distance.

The Esprit system has excellent dynamic ability, especially given its lower profile. It ably filled my medium-sized listening room, and even a two-channel music setup presents a large soundstage, with good stereo imaging that locks vocals dead center. I began my movie demos by simply placing the ADP-590s on top of my existing surrounds at a height of about 3.5 feet; in this configuration, many subtle rear-channel effects were lost, and I didn’t get much sense of envelopment. Paradigm recommends a height of six to nine feet; when I moved the ADP-590s up to six feet, the difference was dramatic: Distinct cues still had a tangible presence, and the sound more effectively fell over and moved around me to create a more immersive experience.

Not surprisingly, given their thinner profile, the Esprits are only rated down to 75 Hz, so you’ll definitely want to mate them with a subwoofer. The Seismic 10 proved an excellent partner. This little sub produced tight, well-defined bass notes in the “All Together Now” chapter from Yellow Submarine and exhibited great control over bass notes in music tracks, while movie explosions had clear impact and solid depth. With the deepest LFE information in U-571 and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the Seismic 10 couldn’t quite muster the same volume as the best subs I’ve heard, but its performance was still quite impressive for its size.

Probably the biggest challenge facing the new crop of flat, on-wall speakers is midrange reproduction. It’s just hard to eke out the mid-frequencies when you don’t have much cabinet depth to work with. The Esprit system performs admirably in this area. Its midrange reproduction isn’t as full as that of the better bookshelf speakers I’ve heard, but it produces a generally well-balanced soundstage in which no key element is missing. Still, the speakers’ thinner cabinet does reveal itself in a few performance areas. For the most part, the Esprit C center does a nice job rendering clear, natural vocals, but deeper male vocals, like those of Joaquin Phoenix and Robert Patrick in Walk the Line, occasionally had a hint of chestiness and boxiness that’s characteristic of a smaller center. Music demos tend to expose the midrange more than movies, and I did feel that bass lines, percussion, and other lower-frequency instruments were sometimes overshadowed by those great high frequencies, giving the sound an upfront, immediate quality. Lots of people actually prefer this immediacy, but I like a slightly warmer feel with music.

All in all, Paradigm has done a great job creating a speaker package that offers a flat, low-profile aesthetic with only minimal sonic compromises. With its good dynamic ability, airy highs, disciplined lows, and clean yet enveloping soundstage, the Esprit ensemble proves that it does indeed belong with the rest of the Reference Studio Series line. yy