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Paradigm Persona 9H demo at Audio Doctor

I have been following the thread about the Paradigm Personas, which has been getting a lot of interest, and considering that I live in Jersey City, I felt that it would be very cool to come over to the Audio Doctor showroom to hear these speakers for myself.

I have been a long time Jersey City resident, and then I remembered meeting the store owner Dave at my building when he was setting up a custom audio/video installation and inviting him in to check out my setup. He barely set foot into my loft when he started identifying and scrutinizing my system with even the most obscure HiFi brands included.. Right on, this guy knows his business!
4 years later!

The shop is housed in a restored Victorian Mansion and after touring the place which took around 30 mins plus, we finally got to sit down and listen to some tunes on Audio Doctor's reference rig which consisted of the T+A electronics made in Germany, with a Light Harmonic DaVinci dac, playing high res files and MQA via a Batis computer.

All I can say is this is a dream shop, I have never seen such a wide range of equipment on display and I have been to many, many, different audio stores both in the United States and in Germany where I am from originally. 

I started the tour in their small starter room, which had a lot of lovely gear, all affordable, Kef Q, and R speakers, Naim, Parasound, streaming products. 

Then I was escorted into the second sound room, which contained Audio Doctor's mid level gear, higher end Naim, Electrocompaniet, Lumin, T+A, Conrad Johnson, Nuprime, all of great more affordable still reference grade kinds of products. I heard the Legacy Focus Signatures and the Nuprime electronics the entire system cost about $10k and was mind blowing for the money.

Then we went into their Movie theater another wow room and then finally Dave played the big room with their best equipment on the Pardigm Persona 9H and all I can say is this system sounds like real music, no doubt about it, 

I have never heard a system that sounds this life like and I heard a $300k Oswald Mills system and there is no contest, Audio Doctor's  big reference rig is truly something special put on a great recordings and sit back and you will hear a completely holographic, totally transparent, sound which sounds true to life and it is musical to boot!

Dave is a gentleman with an incredible knowledge of the industry, and a true passion for great sound. 















 


128x128kuppe38
okeeteekid's avatar
okeeteekid
142 posts
 
Glad you like the sound of the personas, sounds like Dave knows Audio and has a really nice shop, one day I’ll have to go and visit Audio Doctor and take a listen.

It would’ve been nice if you could of listened to some of paradigms competitors speakers on the same electronics that were driving the personas, that would be a true A/B test to see if the personas are really that good.

I wonder if the guys at Audio Doctor did compare the personas to other competitive speaker brands on the same electronics already? and if so, what were their thoughts?
kuppe38's avatar
kuppe38 OP
30 posts
 
I went over this weekend for another visit to the store, quite frankly I can't afford the big 9H but I was interested in hearing the Persona 3F which I think I can afford if I sell off my vintage Audio Physic Virgos, and save up a little. 

The 3F sounded fantastic, with much of the same holographic sound, and the bass response was ridiculously low and articulate considering the size of the speakers. We listened to a number of other great speakers to compare, including the Dali Rubicons, which were wonderful and had some great qualities, we also listened to the PSB T3 which were very nice, they just weren't as transparent, or with as holographic a sound, but very easy to listen to. 

We also listened to the Legacy Focus Signatures, and for the money they were awesome, again not as transparent, not as holographic but for the money $6,800.00 a pair I would take these over almost all the similarly priced speakers, smooth midrange, good detail, a tight very visceral bass response, however, they are a bit on the big side, good for a loft space like mine. 

I would recommend if you are in the market for anything, Audio Doctor has one of the most impressive collections of equipment in the tri state area, and I was introduced to products I have never heard before or just read about, the Nuprime electronics were just killer and super affordable, we also checked out the new Micromega M100 which had some really nice qualities, I briefly head Legacy speakers at a show years ago and here they were. Dave is a totally cool guy and I learned a lot about system tuning and equipment interactions, place is like an audio candy store. 

Now if I can only save up some more money a bit faster, Legacy Focus or Persona 3F a hard choice two totally fantastic speakers. 
petrosphi
1 posts
 
I also reached out to the AudioDoctor, when that I found that he is an authorized dealer in the New York and New Jersey area for the Paradigm and the Legacy speakers.
In the market for a pair of speakers, I called David the previous evening. He spent about half an hour on the phone with me, trying to understand what it is that I am looking for and what electronics I would pair it with, before he invited me in. When I asked "how is tomorrow" he replied "Tomorrow is fine"
Dave spent the better part of four hours of last Saturday with me on trying out various speakers.
We first listened to a pair of Legacy Focus SE a speaker with a lot of presence and an incredible bang for the buck (a pair of Legacy Aeris was expected to arrive in the shop very soon).
In response to my questions and comments, David then suggested we moved to listen to a beautiful pair of Dali Helicon with incredible voicing and detail offering "gestures" I never had noticed before.
As the new Paradigm Persona had started all of this, we then proceeded to the 3F model, which besides its striking looks, is an unbelievably clean speaker. Nothing escapes it, extremely detailed, musical, with beautiful staging.
The 9H was set in a prominent place, and David graciously offered to "fire" it up, however, as it is beyond my budget, there was no point and opted to listen to a pair of KEF Blades 1 located in a different setup in the next area.
Throughout the audition process Dave was very attentive to my questions, obviously very knowledgeable about the construction particulars of each speaker and the implications of the design choices. He could comment and compare with other models and similar equipment, he conveyed the confidence of someone who has charted the landscape extensively for a very long time.
There is a huge selection of electronics to choose from -wall to wall, literally). Some gear I had never heard of - like a pair of very impressively looking Polymer speakers with diamod tweeter and diamond midrange!
Dave is a great host, takes a lot of pride in hos work and in his knowledge. He has a lot of love for what he does and tries to help you to get to a solution you will be happy with at a price point you will be comfortable at. I got to listen to 4 pairs of speakers, 2 of which I could find in no other place in the New York-New Jersey area.

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