Focal Utopia Scala V2 or Persona (9H/7F)

First off, absolutely wait for the Scala Utopia Evo.  Buying the v2 would be a mistake.  The Evo is a huge improvement to an already incredible speaker.

Moving on to the Personas.  WTF?  No , literally.

How are they this good?  I don’t know – but the Persona B, 3F, and 7F are so good when set up right, it’s hard to describe.    I haven’t heard the 5f, but the 3F is honestly underpriced severely.

I agree with most of what AudioTroy said, aside from the Utopia’s having a small soundstage due to the baffle.  While I do agree and take into consideration the baffle width - I don’t think it’s the end all determining factor.   Obviously Raidho is magical, but so would Golden Ear be.  That’s not the case (although they are good speakers).

I haven’t heard enough of the Evo in a fair environment to say anything concrete but what I heard was really really amazing.  As far as the comparison, I think you are looking in the right direction.

Either way, the Personas...  if they had a different brand label on the bottom, they’d be on every audiophiles wishlist.  They should be.  I hope Paradigm can overcome the audiophile snobs who scoff at the speakers just because they make budget stuff as well.  The Personas are something truly special.  

Sorry for the rant, you just happened to post about two of my favorite speakers.

Thanks Contuzzi 

I know you are hearing what we are hearing with the Personas.

I think if you keep on looking at the differences between the two the Personas are still really heard to beat.

The active room corrected bass is a fantastic feature that guarantees one of the most difficult to achieve things in all of audio is done properly ie, clean tight well defined bass response in room.

A passive speaker without room correction technology will be difficult to get the bass to be in the same league. 

Troy and Dave
Audio Doctor NJ 

@contuzzi  Where have you heard the EVO?  To my knowledge the speaker isn't out until September and was on static display in Munich.

Yes Troy, I agree with your comments on the Cast Cables. I am running Siltech throughout my system. DAC is EMM Labs DA2 with Bryston BDP-2. I can get a much better bang for my buck if I go for the Scala V2's with the EVO's coming out.

Dear Shpitz,

Yes there are always buys on the older model,  and should not be the answer, if you purchase a great product that you can buy and keep for a long time you will gain much greater satisfaction and not be shopping for the next deal for a long time, 

It has taken us 3 years to build our reference system and quite frankly we wouldn't want to change it just tweek it. 

Once you create a system that sounds magical you will want to get off the merry go round. 

We could show you a lot of tricks that will make you take notice of how real a system can sound. 

If you purchase a great anything you will not be tempted to exchange it for a long long time, that includes cars, watches, women, etc. 

Find what works and keep it you will be happier and wiser in the long run.

That is our approach to audio, we have the best sounding turntable one that costs $7k and it sounds nearly as good as a $40k one, so why would we be looking for another? Same thing with our choice of T+A electronics and the LH Labs Davinci dac, which we compared to the DA2, no contest there at all. The LH Labs Davinci can be upgraded from MK 1 to MK 2 for a reasonable cost, so if you purchased one 5 years ago, you would still be happy today again long term satisfaction vs models which can't be upgraded such as DCS, and Meitner. You can do board upgrades but you can't turn a Dac2xSe into a Da2 different platforms for examplel. 

Different philosophy if you want a deal, we have a pair of $68k Polymer Research MKXS which use all Aucton pure Diamond drivers, for $28k probably the best speakers ever made, dropping the line due to lack of marketing otherwise buy a pair of Personas or the newer Focals and keep them for 10+ years.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ