Paradigm SA-25 Reference In-Wall Speakers Review

Paradigm has been one of the most recognized and revered names in high-end audio for several decades.  Headquartered in Canada, their state-of-the-art facility is home to an anechoic chamber similar to that at the National Research Council (NRC), which allows them to make quick and consistent measurements of their products in efforts to continually refine performance.  When the opportunity presented itself for me to upgrade the sound in the Audioholics Showcase Home guest room, I immediately thought of Paradigm.  Having enjoyed several Paradigm in-wall speaker demos at various trade shows in the past, I was curious to see how their top tier in-wall products would perform in my own listening space.  Paradigm graciously sent me their SA-25’s from their Reference Series collection.  Right out of the box, I realized I had quite a special product on my hands.  But would the sum of the parts equate to performance befitting such a high price tag?  Read the review to find out.

Paradigm SA-25 In-Wall Speaker YouTube Review

Design Overview

The Paradigm SA-25 is a two-way design with 1” gold anodized aluminum tweeter and 6.5” aluminum cone woofer with phase plug.  The woofer features a heavy-duty 1.5” voice coil for increased power handling and the driver employs a cast basket with a large extruded heatsink to improve cooling.  The woofer features a real phase plug which physically separates from the cone and instead is attached to the pole piece. This reduces the moving mass of the driver slightly, allowing it to extend its usable frequency response and also acts as a heat sink to cool the voice coil and increase power handling. It also slightly reduces on-axis beaming by dispersing the high frequencies the driver is producing. The 1” aluminum dome tweeter also has a heatsink to reduce thermal compression.  The crossover is a 3^rd-order electro-acoustical response with a 2kHz cutoff.  It contains a mixture of air core inductors and mylar caps on the tweeter circuit along with a large heavy gauge iron choke on the woofer.  The padding resistor on the tweeter is mounted on stand-offs to reduce heat buildup by increasing air circulation.  Everything about this product demonstrates Paradigm going to the extreme to ensure high power handling and low compression.  Even the front baffle is extremely rigid and constructed out of aluminum instead of plastic as found on lesser products. The SA-25 is rated for 8 ohms though my measurements reveal a different story.  The frequency response is rated from 58Hz to 22kHz +- 2dB (notice the tight tolerance indicating again good parts quality).  Sensitivity is rated at 88 dB at 2.83V/meter which is what I measured.  The SA-25 is rated from 15-160 watts.  Feed these babies quality amplification, they can take it!

 

Paradigm SA-25 Backview

Installation

It is of paramount importance that you cut out the right size hole in your drywall to install the SA-25 speakers.  Before doing any cuts, make sure you first use a stud finder to locate the studs which should be 16” apart on center  in U.S. domestic construction (milled 2 by 4 is actually 1-1/2” x 3-1/2” so gap between the studs should be ~14-1/2").  You will want to install the speaker between the studs.  The Paradigm-supplied template is your friend.  I suggest placing the template against the wall where you plan on installing the speakers and tracing it out with a pencil.  Note: Don’t make the drywall cut out any bigger than that or else you run the risk of not having enough drywall to clamp down to with the metal brackets when installing the speaker.  Firmly holding the template against the wall, I used an X-Acto knife to cut out the drywall which isn’t all too difficult a task if you have a sharp blade and a strong arm.

Since this wasn’t new construction, I wasn’t able to install back boxes so I did the next best thing.  I stapled sound foam into the back cavity to help deaden the “enclosure.”  I do recommend the optional back boxes if you’re planning on installing these speakers in a new home or if you’re not afraid to tear down and building back up some extra drywall in the pursuit of better sound.    

When installing the SA-25’s you’re going to need a power drill to screw the speakers into the wall.  These are long screws so trust me when I advise NOT to manually turn these.  Save your forearms and time and let the drill do the work for you.  Just back the torque off so you don’t over tighten towards the end.

Once the speaker is secured to the wall, you can install the grille.  Paradigm claims the scrim cloth behind the metal grille is acoustically transparent and intended to remain in place for customers wanting to conceal the drivers from view.  In my experience these cloth coverings have acoustical losses.  If you can’t shine a flashlight through it, how could you expect no loss of fidelity?  I took off the cloth on the grille before installing as I didn’t want to hinder the performance of this fine speaker and defeat its very purpose.  I wasn’t able to get one of the speakers completely flush mounted to my wall thanks to the shoddy drywall work of my home builder.  So, I took a bead of caulk and ran it through the seam of the speaker for a better seal.  Carefully inspect the speakers after installation to address any potential leakage paths.

Paradigm SA-25 Reference In-Wall Speakers Sound Quality Tests

I tested the Paradigm SA-25 in-wall speakers in the guest room of the Audioholics Showcase Home utilizing our reference gear such as the Yamaha RX-Z7 AV receiver, Emotiva MPS-1 seven-channel amplifier, Oppo BDP-95 Blu-ray player and Yamaha MCX-2000 MusicCAST digital audio server.  Speaker cables were Bluejeans 10AWG.  I ran the SA-25s full range and did NOT use a subwoofer for any listening tests.

Paradigm SA-25 Speaker Installed

CD: Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

If I was stranded on a desert and could only bring along 10 albums to sustain me, Dire Straits Brothers in Arms would be on the list, not just because of its excellent music content but also because of its pristine fidelity that rivals pretty much anything recorded today in the rock genre.  The SA-25’s were able to convey a spacious stereo image on track #5 “Why Worry.”  The percussion instruments sounded airy much more so than they did on the Axiom M3 on-walls these speakers replaced. The masterful guitar work of Mark Knopfler was properly represented.  This track actually began to lull me to sleep which was a good sign that I was really enjoying it.  That is, until I got awoken by the wonderful percussion work of Omar Hakim in track #6 “Ride Across the River”  The shaker sounds were enveloping as they should be when played back on a highly resolute speaker system.  The bass was tight despite the lack of back boxes on these speakers.  Adding the dampening material in the wall really seemed to help here. 

CD: Fourplay – The Best of Fourplay

I use this disc to test a woofer’s mettle.  Wimpy woofers will simply baulk at the bass in track #5 “Chant.” I’m proud to say the hefty SA-25’s had no complaints here.  Large motor structure, stiff cone, 1.5” voice coil, it’s no surprise that the physics of loudspeaker science prevailed here.  The SA-25’s were able to play as loudly as I demanded without any sign of woofer bottoming or distress.  These babies handled the bass better than some dedicated box speakers I’ve previously tested,even above this price range.  Track #10 “Amoroso” showed off the SA-25’s ability to cleanly separate the instruments at high listening levels and avoid the congested sound of lesser designed speaker systems.  This is where I clearly heard improvements from the former on-wall speakers I had in their place.  The drums had a nice snap to them and the speakers just begged to be played louder.

CD: Dianne Reeves – Never Too Far

In track #2, “Never too Far,” the chorus was wide and spacious and Dianne’s vocals sounded natural and well balanced.  Bass was articulate, and the highs were crisp.  I really like the tweeter in these Paradigm speakers.  I would go so far as to say they are among the best metal domes I’ve heard.  Track #3 “Come In” is a bass intense song that will suck the life out of a weak amp or create havoc on a wimpy woofer.  While the SA-25’s would have greatly benefited with the addition of a powered sub to deliver the full extension and dynamics of this track, they provided a satisfying experience nonetheless.  Dianne sings like an angel here and the SA-25’s make sure you recognize that.

Final Thoughts on Listening Tests

While I would have liked to see Paradigm offer a dip switch to contour the bass and treble response like I’ve seen for most in-wall speakers in this price class, I had no issues dialing in the sound using a slight adjustment of my receiver’s treble control (-1dB) depending on source material.  I wouldn’t categorize the SA-25’s to be “bright”; instead I would say they are very revealing.  They do have a lot of treble energy but the tweeter is so smooth and intoxicating to listen to that you probably won’t want to tame it.  However, if you prefer to soften the highs, you can accomplish this by leaving the cloth on the grille covers as Paradigm suggests and/or install a subwoofer to get the bass level up a bit.  As good as the bass is in these speakers, a subwoofer would always make things that much better.  

Paradigm SA-25 Reference In-Wall Speakers Measurements and Analysis

Paradigm SA-25 Listening Window Response – 1/2 meter in-room spliced @ 1kHz, no smoothing

I measured the Paradigm SA-25 speaker at 1/2 meter in-room installed in my wall on-axis, +-30 deg off-axis horizontal and +- 15 deg vertical off-axis to derive the listening window response.  There was a pronounced dip in the 500Hz to 1kHz region when I measured on-axis but it was likely a result of the speaker being in close proximity to my large Armoire as it didn’t show up in a nearfield measurement of the woofer.  Thus I spliced my listening window response with a nearfield measurement of the woofer below 1kHz to yield the result you see in the graph above. 

The SA-25’s measured as expected, very linearly.  While my listening tests revealed the SA-25’s appeared to have the tweeter level set a bit hot, I didn’t see this in my measured results.

Paradigm SA-25 Impedance and Phase

The SA-25’s are rated at 8 ohms but in reality they are a 4-ohm speaker.  There is no hiding this fact.  I suspect Paradigm rated them 8 ohms for marketing purposes and because of their high sensitivity making them an easy load to drive.  Care should be taken to use solid amplification when mating to these speakers as the 4-ohm dip in the 100-300Hz region can be problematic for low end receivers with inadequate power supplies.

Paradigm SA-25 Reference In-Wall Speakers Conclusion

It has been awhile since I’ve reviewed a Paradigm speaker but I’m glad I’ve had the chance to check out the SA-25 in-walls as it made me realize just how far the company has advanced its sound over the last decade or so.  The SA-25s are among the best sounding compact in-walls I’ve heard and they will certainly satisfy even the most critical audiophile. The SA-25s would serve well for critical two-channel listening for the front channels or as a matching pair of surround speakers too.

When you buy a speaker from Paradigm, you can rest assured that you will be getting a highly engineered product based on sound science and quality materials.  Spending time with the SA-25’s left me desperately wanting to check out some of their high end boxed speaker offerings.

Paradigm SA-25 In-Wall Speaker YouTube Review

SA-25 In-Wall Review
MSRP: $1050/pair

Paradigm Electronics Inc.
205 Annagem Blvd.
Mississauga, ON L5T 2V1 Canada

Service & Support
Phone: (905) 696-2868
Fax: (905) 696-9479

http://www.paradigm.com/

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Treble Extension
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Performance
Value