Floorstanding loudspeakers — Paradigm Electronics Founder 120H

Among the Founder models from Paradigm Electronics, which are designed and assembled at the company's plant near Toronto, the Founder 120H is the hybrid tower. It is a 5-driver, 3-way ported design in which the midrange and tweeter are driven passively by the owner's amplifier with the woofer section fed by its own built-in amplification. Paradigm lists it at USD 4,499.99 each, and it can be ordered in Midnight Cherry, Walnut, Black Walnut or Piano Black, while three further colours belong to the Founder Forty-One Collection.

Key specs that matter

The published on-axis response runs from 22 Hz to 23 kHz within plus or minus 2 dB, and from 22 Hz to 20 kHz at 30 degrees off axis. DIN low frequency extension is 18 Hz. Sensitivity is quoted as 95 dB in room and 92 dB anechoic, and the passive section is listed as compatible with 8 ohms. The recommended amplifier range is 15 to 400 watts, with a maximum input of 300 watts. Each cabinet is 115.3 cm tall, 35.4 cm wide and 44.1 cm deep and weighs 41.7 kg.

Engineering and use context

An internal amplifier rated by Paradigm at 1000 watts powers three 215 mm CARBON-X unibody bass cones with ultra-high excursion, which use Gen3 Active Ridge Technology, a vertical mounting system and Advanced SHOCK-MOUNT isolation with 38 mm high-temperature voice coils on ventilated Apical formers. Paradigm lists integration of this internal amplifier with the Anthem ARC Genesis software. Above the woofers, a 152 mm AL-MAG midrange with a Perforated Phase-Aligning lens, SHOCK-MOUNT isolation and a 51 mm voice coil takes over through a second order digital and analog crossover at 300 Hz. A 25 mm AL-MAC ceramic dome tweeter, ferrofluid damped and cooled, sits in an Oblate Spheroid Waveguide with its own PPA lens and crosses in at 2.4 kHz with a second order slope. The faceted cabinet uses Cascade-Fusion bracing for rigidity, the SHOCK-MOUNT hardware decouples the drivers from the enclosure, and the design is bi-amp capable, so two amplifier channels can feed the passive section.

Pairing

Since the woofers carry their own amplification, the external amplifier only drives the midrange and tweeter section, so a stereo integrated amplifier or power amplifier within the recommended power range suits the passive inputs, and the built-in bass amplifier needs mains power at each speaker.

Alternatives

The Founder 100F is the passive floorstander of the same series, using three 7 inch CARBON-X bass drivers and listed at USD 2,799.99 each.