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Paradigm Studio 60's

I always wanted a pair of the Studio 100's. Loved them since the first time I heard them. I have happily settled for their little brothers for all these years.
 
^ what amp were you driving them with?

Marantz MM-9000 amp driving the front three. Receiver driving the surrounds. The room was 15 feet wide and 22 feet long with a 12 foot vaulted ceiling. There were no acoustic treatments at all, though the room sounded reasonably good. The volume at which I felt the sound was becoming compressed was high enough bad for your hearing. I never heard any clipping from the amp. I never heard any scary noises from the speakers. The sound just got compressed sounding and a little harsh. It may have been the limits of the amplifier. All I know is that I haven't had it happen since, because I do not normally listen at ear-bleeding volumes. I was mostly just playing around to see how loud it would go.
 
Marantz MM-9000 amp driving the front three. Receiver driving the surrounds. The room was 15 feet wide and 22 feet long with a 12 foot vaulted ceiling. There were no acoustic treatments at all, though the room sounded reasonably good. The volume at which I felt the sound was becoming compressed was high enough bad for your hearing. I never heard any clipping from the amp. I never heard any scary noises from the speakers. The sound just got compressed sounding and a little harsh. It may have been the limits of the amplifier. All I know is that I haven't had it happen since, because I do not normally listen at ear-bleeding volumes. I was mostly just playing around to see how loud it would go.

You may have reached the practicalacoustic loudness limit of the room where the echo and reverb was so loud that it muddied the direct sound. This is often perceived as washed out and compressed even if the speakers could do much more.

Did you have a different experience at those SPLs with other speakers in the same room?
 
You may have reached the practicalacoustic loudness limit of the room where the echo and reverb was so loud that it muddied the direct sound. This is often perceived as washed out and compressed even if the speakers could do much more.

Did you have a different experience at those SPLs with other speakers in the same room?

I never tried to play other speakers in that room at that volume.
 
It may have been the limits of the amplifier.

When solid state power amplifiers reach their limits, they simply clip, which has an obvious sound. An amplifier which sounds like its getting muddy would more than likely be a tube design without feedback since when these amplifiers reach their limits they clip softly with the harmonic distortion components rising relatively smoothly which results in the sound getting progressively thicker. A solid state amp will just clip abruptly.

The compressed sound at high volumes you were hearing were more likely to be either the room, the speakers and/or your ears.
 
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