Whatmough Paragon loudspeakers, pair, black finish

[Loz_6SL7]

Further Information: 

Colin Whatmough’s most ambitious speakers, these units have historic serial nos. 1 and 2.

One owner. Large floor-standing, 4-way. Each speaker has 6 drivers: 1 x 305mm subwoofer, 2 x 175mm bass, 2 x 100mm midrange, 1 x tweeter.

The subwoofer enclosures are structurally separate; the other enclosures mount on top of them. The subs are powered by inbuilt 240W amps, and some crossover parameters are adjustable. In addition, there is an active Whise Acoustics box that implements a Neville Thiele Method crossover between subs and bass. The drive units apart from the subs can be driven by a single stereo amp or anything up to tri-amped.

The sound is excellent. They were reviewed glowingly in Australian Hi-Fi (November/December 2005: “Are these Australia’s best loudspeakers?”). The Paragons are still on the The Audio Experts website, RRP $49.999/pair.

(These are not in my possession, being still with the friend’s wife, but I have received (admin) permission to post an ad for them, in the unusual circumstances.)

 

[Kieron]

Absolute bargain here!  I have the little brother to these the Progrney’s and they have a very musical  and detailed sound. Australian made all the way.

[kefacurus]

I have never seen a pair for sale, wow!

 

[Mark Zabel]

Hi Loz,

 

Just enquiring about the speakers, whether they have boxes, is the price negotiable and how hard would it be to transport or pick up? 

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

[Loz_6SL7]

Hello Mark

 

No boxes, it's safe to say, although I will double check.  At this point the price isn't negotiable - they are a lot of speakers for the money. 

They are very large and heavy.  However, the main "towers" lift off the subwoofer enclosures.  The main weight is in the subs.  I think the towers separate into three parts.  This ability to separate the parts makes transportation possible, but not easy.  As I said, the subs are very heavy and provide the main challenge.  Sitting on their feet, the subs would be very stable during transportation, and would not occupy a huge area.  I imagine a "Toorak tractor" would handle the task quite easily.

 

Kind regards

Lawrie

[Mark Zabel]

Thanks Lawrie,

 

This enquiry is for my brother and as such would have to discuss this with him, we live in Sydney and if serious we would take a trip down to audition! I will let you know ASAP of his interest, many thanks again.

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

[Loz_6SL7]

Thanks Mark

 

I have to be impressed!  I hope you can pull it off.  The only thing is how I handle any other interested parties in the meantime.

 

Take care

 

Lawrie

[sir sanders zingmore]

18 minutes ago, Loz_6SL7 said:

The only thing is how I handle any other interested parties in the meantime.

As the seller, it's entirely up to you:

 

https://www.stereonet.com/forums/announcement/47-classifieds-guidelines/

Seller's Choice of Buyer

By replying to a listing, it does not guarantee you are "first-in". It is entirely up to the seller who they wish to sell their products to, and in any order.

A seller may prefer to sell locally, rather than to someone who they will have to ship the product to.

 

I do hope you sell these soon and remove the temptation

 

[Loz_6SL7]

Further, Mark

 

I worry a bit about the level of demo I can provide.  It would be a bit of a disaster if you came down from Sydney but weren't sufficiently impressed because of the associated gear.  (Much less traumatic for Melbourne auditioners.)

 

The associated equipment is very relevant.  No turntable; a high level Marantz SACD player (it was their top of the line when Bill bought it); through a simple passive volume arrangement, including some switching, to the amps, etc..  (I also have very few good SACDs - it would be best if you could bring some.)

 

The system had at its heart a valve phono preamp I made, provided with various switchings to enable Bill to play vinyl, SACD and home theatre (!).  All this was more compromised than I would have liked (being mainly interested in the vinyl, as I was).

 

Now, the amps.  The main outputs from the preamp go to the valve amps that drive the mids and highs: these amps are Silver Nights, which actually roll of at about 16kHz.  They do sound nice but are a bit soft, and don't allow the tweeters to show their extension to 40kHz or so.

 

There is another pair of outputs from the preamp that go to the external Whise box that implements the active Neville Thiele method crossover.  One pair of outputs from this box goes to the subwoofers, which have their own internal amps.  The second pair of outputs from the Whise box goes to an external 60W transistor amp I made.  It was adjusted so its gain was equal to that of the Silver Nights.

 

That gives you more of an idea how all this fitted together.  In particular, the way the signal from the SACD player gets to the amps, and the relative softness of the Silver Nights will limit the impact these speakers are certainly capable of.

 

Kind regards

Lawrie

[sir sanders zingmore]

4 minutes ago, Loz_6SL7 said:

(it was their top of the line when Bill bought it)

 

Is that Bill whose surname starts with "R"?

On 30/04/2024 at 3:10 PM, Loz_6SL7 said:

Death of owner

 

If so, I bought his Whatmough 502i speakers when he upgraded to the Paragons!

They were my first serious speakers and I still regret selling them

 

Sorry to hear of his passing

[joz]

Loved these the first( and only) time I heard them. They were actually the inspiration for my speakers.

i assume that these were final production models and not one of the handful of prototypes?

[Loz_6SL7]

Yes, Biil R.  A lovely man.

 

And the speakers were the first production units - hence the 001 and 002 serial numbers.

 

Lawrie

[Mark Zabel]

Hi Lawrie,

 

Thanks for the detailed response we will be in touch one way or another!

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

[audiohifiaudio]

I remember these speaker when Whatmough died the family sold these at a very good price and these would be that.  Anyway they should be a great speaker. I was thinking about buying back then and I"m still thinking. I never heard this model.