Paradigm Founder 90C Midnight Cherry Center Channel Speakers

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. Patented technologies were developed for the acoustic platform. The 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.

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  you can be sure Founder will sound as good as they look.

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 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.

Similar to the goals 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 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 know when interacting with someone familiar. Goal here was to have the midrange driver sound as realistic as possible. 

The foundation of listening begins with the lowest frequencies. 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.

Packing incredible technology into a speaker means nothing if the benefits don’t reach your ears. By addressing every component, engineers made sure that you could hear the results of their hard work in any environment.

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. 

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 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. 

The Founder Series midrange and bass drivers are mechanically decoupled from the front baffle by 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.

Paradigm Founder 90C  has two Passive Radiators 7" (177mm) Ultra-High-Excursion Carbon-X Unibody Cone, Gen3 Active Ridge Technology (ART) with Vertical Mounting System, Advanced Shockmount Isolation.