Paradigm Personas anyone heard them

Yes and I am sure the same thing can be said about B&W
and KEF.

B&W didn't start with the 801 nor did KEF start with their Reference lines. Both of these companies started with affordable models first.

Look at PSB the T3 which has been universally heralded as a fantastic speaker got the same smirks when they went up market with the T3. 

Paradigm has always played it safe and even their last line of high end speakers the Signature line was compared very favorably to speakers from Wilson and B&W whose models cost considerably more.

And yes if you have a lot of money you can hire the best minds and use the best technologies, and Paradigm has very talented staff.

Your logic is fallacious, the larger the company the more resources they can throw at a project, Do you think if Bose wanted to build literally the world's best speakers that they couldn't?

The problem in the industry is that their is inherent snobbery and way too much brand passion that borders on insanity. 

There are Wilson guys, Vandersteen guys. Magico guys.etc.

We have tried a lot of very expensive speakers and the Paradigm's are really, really good, and are very competitive with anything out there. 

Are we brand loyal not really, as we have moved in and out of a number of speakers before we settled on the Persona's as one of our top picks, we are adventurous and willing to move to new brands and products that we feel offer our customers the best performance possible. 

So with that said Oaky have you even heard the new Personas?

We heard the paradigm 9h at your show in Ny, even with the bad acoustical room conditions, let me appreciate the wonderful caracteristics of the paradigms, and it is truly right their coherence compete easily with esl loudspeakers, speed too, we did later listen 2 types of wilson loudspeakers with nordost cables ( by the way, worst choices) and jm labs utopias and preferred the paradigms over thoses. 

Dear Patsuh,

Thank you for the kind words. Both Dave and Myself love the Persona line, if you set them up carefully and use great electronics, the speakers perform magnificently!

I have a feeling that some of the doubters have heard the speakers with the wrong electronics or the speakers were not broken in.

I was amazed at the quality of sound we were getting out of that way too small room at the show.

In terms of your comments vs the Wilson, and Utopia product, again I feel the same. It is not that the Persona's are so much better, it is that they offer some of the best qualities of those speakers yet cost considerably less. 

The Personas have a level of transparency that is just so remarkable and the imaging is just spooky one of the best imaging speakers i have ever heard 

If you are in our neck of the woods you should come in for a visit. 

I had a chance to hear the Persona 3F's today at our Paradigm Dealer here in town. They were driven by Moon Evolution Series Pre-amp and Amp. Source was a Moon Neo CD and DAC. I have to be honest in saying I didn't love them. I found the Mid-range and highs somewhat bright and to forward sounding. Almost irritating for lack of a better description. I found the image hard to centre even with toed in versus wider. The bass was very strong. Perhaps the electronics are not a good match for the Persona's. I think they would have sounded better with tubes or pure class A since the speakers are so efficient. Beautiful build quality and pleasing to the eyes esthetically.

I am sooo sceptical about comparisons - most of which come from shibboleths posted on reviewer sites. I owned Paradigm Signature S8 v2s for 30 months and I loved them. Then I heard the Revel Salon 2s that the Sigs are said to rival. Nope stop there, the Sigs do not rival the Revels - period. This comparison has been repeated endlessly - it has been conjoured into being something real. 

Literally, during the first minute that my wife heard the Revels, we had a deal and I replaced the paradigms with them. On every level, the Revels beat the Sigs.