Paradigm Premier 200B Speaker Review

Paradigm is a well-respected speaker manufacturer from Canada, and they have emphasized value along with rigorous scientific testing and design to deliver excellent speakers at a variety of price ranges.

The Premier 200B speakers are designed for use on a stand, and in my two listening environments they did very well, and in all cases sounded considerably better than their small size would lead you to expect. I found the Premier 200B speakers to sound excellent against speakers in their rough price range. The MDF case is resonance free. The tweeter is a wide dispersion driver with very musical characteristics, and the ducted port midrange/woofer design, while only a 6 1/2 inch diameter, put out some clean bass. Although for serious listening, I liked the speakers better with an added subwoofer, they did hold their own when depending on their own built-in drivers.

Paradigm has been crafting fine quality speakers like the Premier 200B since 1982 from their plant just outside Toronto. The company prides itself on designing custom components that have undergone a good deal of scientific testing, and to augment their own staff, Paradigm has tapped smart university audio researchers and the detailed scientific findings from audio studies conducted by the National Research Council of Canada. The company maintains its own anechoic chamber for testing and design, the largest in North America.

The design of the Premier 200B is not that different from other bookshelf speakers, and like many bookshelf speakers, to sound their best they aren’t really designed to be set on a bookshelf. The ducted port design will require placement that lets the rear port fire toward a wall, and the speakers are best placed on stands at least a foot or two from a back wall. Similarly, the high frequency driver needs some space to distribute high frequencies evenly throughout a room. It’s not that you could not place these speakers on bookshelves. It just that you would not want to do that or you’ll be compromising the sound.

There are some unique design features of the drivers, and they are worth pointing out. The Premier 200B speakers have a patented Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Tweeter and Midrange Lens technology. There is a distinctive perforated lens in front of the tweeter and midrange drivers which Paradigm claims increases and smooths output without coloring the sound, while also protecting the drivers from getting damaged.

Paradigm also notes what they call Active Ridge Technology (ART™) Surrounds. The Premier 200B features this patented surround design, made in-house and molded directly onto each woofer and midrange cone. This design, Paradigm claims, achieves greater excursion, for a 3dB gain in output and 50% reduction in distortion. Crafted from injection-molded thermoplastic elastomer, Paradigm states that ART surrounds are more durable and more reliable.

The speakers are hefty, weighing 18 pounds apiece. When you knock on the side of the cabinets they are inert, something you want in a speaker to fight resonances and buzzing from vibrating parts. You can use the speakers with the provided grille, or leave them off. They attach magnetically, which I think is the preferred way to mount them, rather than snaps or other fasteners that always seem to break off. Over the years I’ve had more than one set of speaker grills break their flimsy mounting hardware. That just can’t happen with the Premier 200Bs.

The speakers arrived in two boxes. They were very well packed and sealed, and sitting in molded Styrofoam carriers to protect them. The Styrofoam is effective protection from shipping damage as the pieces are quite deep. Even a punctured shipping box is unlikely to damage the speakers inside. The speaker grilles are packed separately. Under the packing is a setup manual.

Since these are not amplified speakers they are easy to set up. There have nicely constructed binding posts, which accept banana plugs or bare wire. The connections are rigid. The overall construction is of the highest quality, and they blend unobtrusively into any room. They come in three finishes, Gloss Black, Gloss White, and Espresso Grain. You’ll want to put them on stands, which is an added expense, or they will work on the ends of your existing equipment cabinet.

The rest of the setup comes down to putting them on solid speaker stands, or on either end of a long, roughly ear height cabinet. As I mentioned before, they should be out from the rear wall, and some experimenting will get you a good position for the best sound.

Moving to a moderately sized bedroom improved the sound considerably. Driven by a Denon Receiver (AVR S640H, 75 watts into 8 ohms), the Premier 200B speakers played loudly without strain. I could still hear a slight midrange forwardness, but the speakers never sounded like they were at the edge of their performance envelope. Bass was solid for this type of speaker, and I could hear useful output down to about 50 Hz. The bass seemed deeper than the 50 Hz number, perhaps the corner placement of the speakers helping a bit, but with all kinds of music, the speaker never sounded flabby or lacking in bass with the normal run of music.

For a time, I listened to music adding a Klipsch subwoofer (R10SWi) which for some organ music and some rock made an appreciable difference. Otherwise, the Premier 200Bs acquitted themselves nicely without the additional bass augmentation. I also tested the Paradigms with the removable grilles on and off but heard no difference. That choice will come down to a matter of the visual rather than the technical.

Here are some of my listening choices:

I did not find any negatives to these fine little performers. I also know of no speaker in this price bracket that is a better performer.

No small enclosed speaker is going to equal a high-quality floor stander a large flat panel speaker. Still, it’s clear the Paradigm Premier 200B speakers punch quite a bit above their weight. When set up properly, the speakers give a very convincing three-dimensional illusion, where the speakers vanish as point sources and instead create a solid wall of sound between the two speakers. To a degree, this needs a well-produced recording, but I have plenty of that on hand and I found the speakers to have a stable and realistic presentation, whether it was symphonic music, acoustic, or hard rock with electronic instruments In my listening experience, the closest speaker in quality to them are the KEF LS50 speakers. The KEFs cost almost 1/3 more, and I would say have a more extended high-end. For critical listening, both speaker sets need a subwoofer to deliver the deepest bass. I’m surprised Paradigm does not offer a package with the Premier 200B speakers and one of their less expensive subs, like the Defiance v10 ($549) or the Defiance v8 ($399). Either option would seem like a worthy offering and a good match for the Premier 200B speakers.

In summary, the Premier 200B speakers worked with a powerful high-end amp, and a lower powered amp in a receiver. The speakers always sounded clean, with good bass extension and crisp, clear high frequencies. As stated, I did find a slight mid-range bump, but that serves some types of music well and did not damage large scale instrumental works. If your gear allows some room tuning or some forms of equalization, then the issue vanishes.