Paradigm and Anthem

Two winners of our Product of the Year awards were in the same demo room -- and they're part of the same company. The Paradigm Reference Signature S6 v.2 loudspeaker ($4999) and the Anthem Statement D2 audio/video processor ($6699) with the soon-to-be-released ARC-1 software were part of a multichannel demo system. This was one of the best surround-sound demos that we heard and further supported these brands' selection as Product of the Year winners.

Roger Kanno commented that he had never heard such a large system play so loud and sound so good in such a small room. The bass was very tight, and Roger could actually hear it change in pitch rather than turn into the one-note boom that you usually experience in the small hotel rooms typically used for demos. The quality and quantity of the bass might have had something to do with the fact that there were four subwoofers in the room being integrated into the system by the ARC-1 room-correction system.

The rest of the system consisted of the Paradigm Reference Signature C5 v.2 center-channel speaker ($3199), Signature ADP3 surround speakers ($3299 per pair), two Seismic 12 subwoofers ($1700) and two Seismic 10 subwoofers ($1350), an Anthem Statement P5 multichannel amp ($4999) and a P2 stereo amp ($2499). Two Oppo DV-970HD DVD players, a Sony PlayStation 3, a Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player, and a JVC DLA-RS2 front projector rounded things out. [www.paradigm.com] [www.anthemav.com]