Paradigm Persona series

I too an a Vandy guy. I never was until I spent time with all the other speakers out there in my range and found them to be the best compromise.  Every speaker is a compromise and you either like or don't like what is compromised.  

The Vandy is similar in design to the old Thiel in that it's time and phase correct.  No smearing and tons of micro and macro detail.  Paired with a zero feedback design amp, it can be magical.  I also have found that in MY room, it's been the best by far as I have a difficult room.  I have spoken to Richard V about how he designs them and it's in a real world environment.  No special chambers etc...  That's probably why it's been the best sounding in my room.

I personally have heard the Paradigm's in many venues and never liked them.  Just not my cup of tea.  I found their highs to be tipped up bit and that's fatiguing to me (maybe not to others).  I also found them to lack coherency to MY ears.  Again, there are different speakers for all our ears.  This is why going to listen is so important.  Many designers will produce these ultra dynamic speakers as they will stand out in a store, but they often lack the micro and macro details that give you the emotion in a song.  Again, just my opinion.

I've only heard the 3f's from that line with an Anthem front end and I expected them to be bright, even had dealer play diana schuur and they were smooth, but regardless what people say about speaker break in he/dealer said they sounded pretty harsh for a good week. I thought the Kanta'2 imaged better at the same price though I wouldn't say either speaker was better.

At this price range and since you value dsp correction you have to check out Legacy Focus XD and Legacy Aeris with Wavelet. They check all your boxes , active amplification, correction across the audio band with tailored parameters for your speaker at factory. And they have been doing this longer than Paradigm, as far as I know. The purchase comes with in-house setup.

I am a long time Paradigm Studo 40v3 owner. I was really impressed by Legacy at RMAF this year. I listened to many speakers around 20K and more. Quite a value but not a compromised sound at all. You can easily spend way more and get less.

I have now had the Persona 5Fs for 3 mos and after a cable loom change and some fantastic tuning footers from Combak Harmonix I can say these speakers are worth heavy consideration.
They are replacing  a set of Magico S3. The Magico's weren't  bad but just got a little boring after the year I had them. I wanted something a little more lively. 
The Audience Au24Sx cable loom  was a great match for the Magico's but not so much for the Persons. I went with Cerious Technologies Matrix line of IC and Speaker cables. Bob even made me custom jumpers so all was good.
All the upper midrange glare was gone and after the loom was broke in for about 3 weeks the Personas really blossomed.  But when they really showed off their best in class midrange was when adding the tuning bases under the spikes of the Persona's. Vocals have unbelievable texture, Front to back layering of the players are some of the best I have heard anywhere.  You can follow the piano players fingers down the piano in front of you. Notes just float away with fantastic decay. Bob's speakers wires are friggin awesome!!.
I have heard the Personas at Dealers and I would not buy them either.   
They need to be synergized in your room, for your tastes.  
I take professional reviews with a grain of salt but these guys have had the speakers usually for a couple of months and can tweak them. All the reviews are very positive.
I have always considered Paradigm a solid HT speaker and not much more.  The Persona's have changed all that.!!
Aurender A10> Micro Zotl 2.0s> Hot Rodded  Odyssey Kismets Monos> 5fs , Stillpoints under everything. 

personally i am a bit jaded with paradigm for jumping into high end so hard, so quickly. the prestige series was already significantly more expensive than anything they ever did beforehand, now we got the persona series... i never considered the paradigm brand synonymous with ultra high end, guess theyve made it to the big leagues now.