The Paradigm Brand Story

Most speaker companies were started and run by a clever guy who had specific ideas about what was important in speaker design. He typically implemented his ideas with off the shelf parts, put them into cabinets, wired up a crossover and sold them. People’s reactions tended to be either love or hate – which led to the belief that what defines a good speaker is purely subjective.  

However, Paradigm isn’t like most speaker companies. We combine science, engineering, art and manufacturing to produce speakers that are not only better sounding, but integrate better into the home and provide a better value.  

We base all of our speaker development and design on landmark research that was done by Canada's National Research Council.  Over two decades of double-blind listening tests with thousands of volunteers proved that 96% of people prefer speakers that have the following characteristics: flat, accurate midrange response; wide, smooth off-axis response (wide dispersion); and low distortion. We combine those parameters with industry-leading driver designs that gives every speaker we build significant low bass response and higher power handling than our competitors. The results are neutral sounding speakers with less of their own sonic signature, fuller bass and higher output than our competitors' designs. 

We are known around the world for our performance and value.  At the time Paradigm was founded in 1982, the top-ranking speakers that exhibited the 3 main NRC parameters were very expensive - out of reach of the average music lover at the time.  So, Paradigm’s goal was to produce speakers that were preferable by 96% of the population, and also be accessible to the majority of people interested in music in their homes. 

Paradigm's founders poured their money back into the company, building the largest, most complete speaker and electronics manufacturing facility dedicated to a single brand in North America, if not the world. This gives us an economy of scale that ensures the highest quality, performance, and value in the industry. Over time, repeat customers wanting something even better drove us to higher levels of performance with commensurately more luxurious industrial designs, fit and finish. As the prices rose in proportion to performance, being the best value in the market remained the same.    Today we still rely on real science and engineering; we fine tune the speakers based on controlled listening sessions, wrap them in world class industrial designs, and build them ourselves from the ground up. Our approach produces speakers whose performance is less subjective or a matter of taste.  Because they don't have a sound of their own they sonically get out of the way while gracefully integrating into a home. Paradigm speakers reveal the true essence of a recording better than any other brand of speakers in the world.