Description
Founder is no ordinary loudspeaker. Every component, large and small, was scrutinized down to the tiniest detail. Every component has been thoroughly researched, designed, and engineered, exclusively for Founder’s. New patented technologies were developed for the acoustic platform. The new cabinet platform is not just a stunning design, its unique shape and integrated structural bracing delivers acoustic performance that cannot be matched by traditional square boxes. By leaving no element unaddressed, Founder’s is so much more than the sum of its parts.
During our exhaustive research, design, and engineering process, we looked closely and carefully at how speakers interact with their environment. The contemporary home interior presents design challenges that have become even more prominent over the last decade. Stone, glass, and wood have become the materials of choice and open concepts dominate. Founder’s design has evolved with this trend and is perfectly suited to deliver its maximum performance in rooms that would challenge traditionally designed speakers. Whether you enjoy movies and music in a more traditional listening space, or your home is from the pages of Architectural Digest, you can be sure Founder will sound as good as they look.
Precision
When we say “precision” we mean the nuance, detail, and realism that is achieved when a speaker “gets it right.” Founder series includes many new advances in design, materials, and engineering to provide class defining levels of performance.
Aluminum Magnesium Ceramic (AL-MAC™) High-Frequency Driver
Any high-performance speaker driver (in this case, the tweeter) must be both very strong (to prevent distortion), and very light (to be agile, responsive, and accurate). This quest of design and engineering has led the industry to try many different exotic materials. Some of them found practical application and many did not. AL-MAC is our unique blend of Aluminum, Magnesium, and Ceramic materials; each of which contribute to the end goal of greater accuracy and realism. Their special properties contribute to the final product which is not only strong and lightweight, but embodies a natural anti-resonance to ensure the tweeter doesn’t just sound good “on paper” but truly sounds incredible in the real world. Cutting edge technology, with real benefits, in practical applications – this is what the Founder Series is all about.
Aluminum Magnesium (AL-MAG™) Midrange Driver
Similar to the goals we had in mind when developing the AL-MAC tweeter, AL-MAG was conceived to bring the same elevated level of performance to the area where our ears are the most sensitive, the midrange. If you have ever read a speaker review, the midrange typically gets a lot of attention, and rightly so. By nature, human hearing places an emphasis on things like voices so that we know when we’re interacting with someone familiar. Think about how instantly recognizable your favorite recording artist or actor’s voice sounds. Our goal here was to have the midrange driver sound as realistic as possible. After all, isn’t that why you have a nice audio system? To make it sound like, “you are there?” With AL-MAG technology, Founder series comes another step closer.
Ultra-High-Excursion CARBON-X Unibody Bass Driver
The foundation of our listening begins with the lowest frequencies. In pursuit of ultimate clarity, we developed new technology, high performance bass drivers for use in the larger floorstanding models of the Founder Series. These drivers use a single-piece cone construction for added strength, especially at higher volumes, with the lowest possible mass to ensure every detail can be heard clearly. Combine this with Paradigm’s signature ART Surround, and Shock-Mount technologies and you get a bass driver that’s both detailed and powerful, as it should be.
Control
Packing incredible technology into a speaker means nothing if the benefits don’t reach your ears. By addressing every component, our engineers made sure that you could hear the results of their hard work in any environment.
Oblate Spherical Waveguide (OSW™)
The rooms where we live and listen have changed dramatically over the years. And while home interiors have evolved; many speaker technologies have not kept pace. We believe that speakers should be a natural extension of your room’s look and feel, while also providing a noticeable and real-world performance gain. Enter the Oblate Spherical Waveguide (OSW™) tweeter waveguide, only from Paradigm. The OSW™ helps Founder Series Loudspeakers cope with the challenge presented by modern-day environments, which are larger, more open, and full of reflective surfaces. OSW™ technology utilizes a precise, natural geometry to help focus the tweeter output where it matters, the listening area. As you move to the sides of the listening area, tweeter output gradually decreases, avoiding performance-robbing room reflections. Decreased output at the periphery of the room means that sound will not disrupt others that may be in earshot but wish to focus their attention elsewhere. Coupled with a larger, more powerful magnet/motor structure with greater efficiency and lower distortion, OSW™ gives you better sound where you want it, and less distracting sound where you don’t. Real solutions for real life.
Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Lens
Perforated Phase Aligning (PPA™) Lens technology is a perfect example of form meeting function. Not only are the crafted metal parts beautiful to look at, but they protect the driver cone and provide a substantial performance benefit. For added levels of realism, the PPA™ lens works to ensure that all frequencies arrive at the listener’s ears at the same time. This means that everything sounds more realistic from the lowest bass, up to the most delicate details. Founder’s floorstanding models also receive this treatment on their midrange drivers helping to project the sound more predictably at a distance. That makes them ideal for listening from farther away without losing sound quality and detail to the room.
Cascade-Fusion Bracing
The first thing you see on a speaker should be the last thing you hear: the cabinet. Founder Series’ cabinets are not only beautiful and unique to the eye, but their design enhances performance. The more rigid and strong a cabinet is, the less resonance and vibration it produces, which invariably improves the sound. The Cascade-Fusion bracing inside the Founder Series’ faceted cabinets is engineered to both increase rigidity and break up any standing waves generated by the high output bass drivers. The inherent strength of our unique geometric cabinet also helps distribute energy across a larger surface area providing even greater strength and support than is possible with traditional square cabinet designs. This ultra-rigid construction gives the drivers a neutral platform to play from, resulting in tighter bass, greater clarity, and more precise accuracy. These beautiful cabinets are “seen and not heard”.
Advanced Shock-Mount™ System
With Founder series, every detail matters. While all the technologies are something you can hear the benefits of, some are more focused on what you don’t hear: distortion. The Shock Mount system is one such special technology that is all about invisibility, both visual and sonic. While we’ve made our drivers the “Stars of the Show”, accompanying technology and innovation ensures that all their benefits reach your ears. Something we’re very proud of is the new Advanced Shock Mount system which is specifically designed to control vibration and resonance between the midrange and bass drivers and the cabinet. By mechanically decoupling these drivers from the specially designed and braced enclosure, these performance robbing vibrations are unable to transfer between the drivers and cabinet, or between the cabinet and the drivers. Without these resonances, all drivers are left free to deliver pure, unaltered sound with no audible distortion. We also applied this principle to the enclosure’s feet. Shock Mount Feet serve to decouple the speaker cabinet from the floor further controlling and eliminating the harmful effects of extraneous vibration. The feet can even be adjusted from above, without moving or tipping the cabinet making sure you get a perfectly level footing on any surface. Interchangeable hardware is included for both carpet and hardwood floors so that no matter what, you are hearing all the performance you paid for.
Anthem Room Correction (ARC™)
We mentioned earlier that rooms have changed dramatically over the years, yet speakers have not kept pace with the evolution of our living spaces. This is not just a bold claim, we can prove it! Using our world-class room correction system, Anthem Room Correction or ARC, we have collected thousands of data points that paint a clear picture of a room’s impact on the sound of your speakers. There is a reason that singing in the shower sounds different than in a living room; the same voice in a different room equals a different sound. The latest version of ARC, ARC Genesis, is an incredibly powerful piece of software that measures exactly what your speakers are doing in your room and tunes them so any harmful effects from your room’s acoustics are all but eliminated. ARC Genesis is a tailor-made solution that controls the parts of the room that aren’t helping, while keeping the parts that are, leaving you with a cleaner, more accurate sound.
Dynamics
Detail, clarity, accuracy, fidelity – these are words often thrown around to indicate the quality of sound, but what of the quantity? Recreating a live performance takes dynamics, or the ability to recreate quiet sounds, loud sounds, and everything in between. Let’s look at how the Founder Series recreates the broadest and most powerful dynamics.
AL-MAC™ High-Frequency Driver
The Founder’s tweeter is a 1″ (25mm) Aluminum Magnesium Ceramic (AL-MAC™) dome with a proprietary Oblate Spherical Waveguide (OSW™) and a Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Lens.
Ultra-High-Excursion AL-MAG™ Bass Midrange Driver ONLY on Founder Series 40B & 80F
The Founder’s mid/bass driver (40B and 80F only) is a 6″(152mm) Ultra-High-Excursion Aluminum Magnesium (AL-MAG™) cone with Perforated Phase-Aligning (PPA™) Lens, Gen3 Active Ridge Technology (ART™) Surround with Vertical Mounting System, Advanced SHOCK-MOUNT™ Isolation, and a 1.5” high-temp multi-layered voice coil with ventilated Apical™ former.
Beautiful Premium-Grade Finishes
Founder Series cabinets are offered in a variety of beautiful premium-grade finishes: Walnut and Black Walnut have a smooth satin finish with distinctive wood figuring. Our exclusive Midnight Cherry and Piano Black feature a luxurious hand-rubbed, high-gloss finish.
Ultra-High-Excursion CARBON-X Unibody Bass Driver
The Founder’s Bass driver is a 6” (152mm), 7” (177mm) or 8” (215mm) Ultra-High-Excursion Unibody CARBON-X™ Cone, over-molded Gen3 Active Ridge Technology (ART™) Surround with Vertical Mounting System, Advanced SHOCK-MOUNT™ Isolation and a 1.5” high-temp multi-layered voice coil with ventilated Apical™ former.
ADVANCED Shock-Mount™ Feet
Founder Floorstanding Speakers include Advanced Shock-Mount™ Feet which decouple the cabinet from the floor, not just once, but twice, for extremely effective vibration decoupling. Interchangeable hardware is included for both carpet and hard surfaces. The feet can be adjusted from above to level the cabinet with ease.
ADVANCED Shock-Mount™ System
The Founder Series midrange and bass drivers are mechanically decoupled from the front baffle by our Advanced SHOCK-MOUNT™ Isolation Mounting System. This special mounting hardware uses an elastomer suspension to prevent any transfer of vibration from the driver to the cabinet, and from the cabinet to the driver. By eliminating resonance, the driver is free to render sound purely and efficiently with no audible distortion and maximum clarity.
Cascade-Fusion Bracing
Cascade-Fusion Bracing inside Founder Series’ faceted cabinets increase rigidity and break up standing low-frequency waves. This delivers much tighter bass with greater clarity and accuracy. All bracing is extensively reinforced, making the cabinet into a monolith stronger than the sum of its parts. The inherent strength of the geometric cabinet profile distributes the load points across a larger cabinet area providing greater support and rigidity than can be achieved with traditional square cabinet geometry.
Proudly Crafted in Canada
The Founder Series is completely designed, engineered, and built at our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility just outside of Toronto, Canada. It’s made by people who love great audio (just like you). From the hand-chosen, specially engineered components and materials, to the precise workmanship of the non-resonant cabinets with their beautiful premium-grade finishes, Founder Series is truly hand-built for performance. Sure, we could say “Made in Canada,” or “Manufactured in Canada.” But we believe that building loudspeakers is an art. Everyone at Paradigm shares a passion for crafting speakers, and it’s from this intense passion that “Crafted in Canada” was proudly born.
Partnered with the NRC
Paradigm is partnered with Canada’s world-renowned NRC in ongoing research to reveal the true nature of sound and human hearing. Findings influence design and performance specs, resulting in a uniquely realistic listening experience, backed by sound science.
