PARADIGM

Did you know that Paradigm loudspeakers are still designed, engineered, and crafted right here, in our headquarters just outside Toronto, Canada? It’s been that way since 1982.

Co-founders Jerry VanderMarel and Scott Bagby wanted to change the prevailing industry paradigm. They wanted to build high performance loudspeakers locally. They wanted to custom-design their speaker components based on science, not speculation. And they wanted to make them available at prices that everyone would appreciate.

To do it, Jerry and Scott tapped smart university audio researchers and the detailed scientific findings from audio studies conducted by the National Research Council of Canada.

Their goal was to achieve a level of performance that would erase the speaker itself from the equation. Pure, lifelike audio, uninhibited by coloration, unrestrained in its ability to translate power into sound. And to do it at a price that would allow anyone to experience this magic.

In 2001, Paradigm brought its manufacturing home to one of the largest loudspeaker manufacturing facilities in North America: a colossal 225,000 square foot factory housing a massive computer-controlled, robot-assisted woodworking shop, hand assembly lines, advanced testing labs (including dual double-blind listening rooms), and automotive-quality finishing shops. Paradigm took complete control of their manufacturing process, from planning, tooling and prototyping, to driver and crossover assembly, and final enclosure wrapping and finishing. Paradigm became one of the largest driver manufacturers on the continent!

The Toronto factory also includes the largest privately-owned anechoic chamber in North America. This astonishing audio testing facility is accessed by a delicate catwalk suspended inside a completely inert room-within-a-room measuring over 33,000 cubic feet, punctuated by large-scale foam stalactites. This quiet cave allowed Paradigm engineers to isolate audio anomalies, evaluate solutions, and perfectly tune speakers and components to more completely eliminate a speaker’s telltale signature or sound print. The science of tuning is perfected in the anechoic chamber, and critics and customers alike take notice as Paradigm loudspeaker performance becomes increasingly transparent.