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.