![]() ![]() There are also settings to help integrate a wired or wireless subwoofer. ![]() In concert with a Menu key, these access the fairly simple setup options, which include on-shelf and on-wall EQ settings, display brightness and time-out, and default listening mode, this last confined to two basic choices: Movie and Music. The supplied remote is a small, rather generic 15-key affair, with a four-way cursor set that doubles as volume up/down and input select. The Soundscape user interface is confined to a single-line, horizontally scrolling LED display behind its cloth grille this is clear enough up close, but I found the blue-on-black characters awfully tough to make out from my 9-foot listening distance. I placed the Paradigm on the low stand usually reserved for my bottom-screen-edge center speaker this put it within a few inches of on-wall. Note: As always, care should be taken before using the TV for switching the optical outputs on most HDTVs today still convert multichannel Dolby Digital andĭTS bitstream signals from a cable box or Blu-ray player to PCM stereo, preventing many soundbarsįrom delivering their best sound quality.-RS] Go for option B, routing everything through the video display, with a single digital-audio link from there This makes input-switching a two-step process, which is cumbersome, I opted for the former, running digital links to the Soundscape from my Blu-ray player and cable box, and their HDMI outputs to the TV. This eliminates all the potential confusion of HDMI Return Channel connection for TV audio and the several other red herrings that HDMI connection can strew, but it does mean that you must either route audio and video signals separately or commit to routing all sources through the television. Unlike many high-end soundbar competitors, Paradigm has eschewed HDMI connectivity in favor of the simplicity-and limitations-of old-school digital inputs (two optical, one coax), plus an analog pair. (Paradigm includes extensive template and bracket accessories to make the former as straightforward as possible, and rubbery feet for the latter.) The design combines seven drivers into a trio of two-way hardware channels (the center is dual-woofer’d), each with a dedicated 25-watt (RMS) amplifier channel, and the system is supported by DSP-based surround magickery. Like many of its peers, for on-wall or shelf/tabletop mounting equally. Whatever the case, expectations were high as I unboxed Paradigm’s $1,500 Soundscape, a slim, round-shouldered soundbar designed, (What is it about Canadians and loudspeaker excellence? The climate? The earnestness? Canada’s peerless National Research Council? Tim Hortons doughnuts? Many answers have been proposed none is definitive.) ![]() One new answer is from Paradigm, longtime Canadian manufacturer and charter member of the maple-leaf club of high-value/high-performance speaker design. The soundbar proposition is easy to understand: Plunk down some cash, open up one box, and you’ve got home theater, without the bulky speakers, messy wires, and painful expense. ![]()
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