Persona 3f vs B&W 802D2s

@audiotroy 

I am leaning toward the Paradigm mostly because my wife loves the look and absolutely hates the B&W.

Unfortunately the shop selling the Paradigm did not give me much confidence that he really new how to pair the equipment.  His recommendations for Amps:
Anthem STR
Bryston 4B cubed
McIntosh MC302
and the Anthem AVM60 processor
The primary purpose is music but it is in a room with a television and one day I may expand and add a center and surround.  But I told him I wanted a 2 channel dedicated processor/preamp that has pass through for when I add the additional channels.  So he did not really follow my request.

What preamp and amp would suggest?

Thanks for your help!
~Mobius

Please contact us for the most indepth info but here is what I would say

Anthem STR a nice integrated good sound, good punch the speakers deserve even better

Bryton way too dry, unless matched with a good tube preamp

Mcintosh warm lacks detail and resolution in my opinion way over priced for the level of sound quality

Anthem AVM 60 great pre/pro for the money not as good sounding as the Audio Control/Arcam stuff, 

If music is your passion then the best option would be to get a good 2 channel setup, take the optical digital out of the TV set the TV to output PCM digital and run that output into the digital input of a dac or an integrated

One of our favorites Naim Uniti Nova $7,000.00 or the new Micromega M150 or depending on volume the less expensive M100 at $4500

The Micromega is very tube like. with a wonderful rich midrange, Naim similar runs out of steam a bit earlier.

If you love rock add a good sub as indicated. 

Stay away from brighter cables AQ, Nordost, Wireworlds are very well balanced. 

Again hope that helps.

Best electronics we have ever used T+A audio from Germany, absolutely amazing sound, build quality and technology, a bit expensive but destination gear. 

Your wife is right on the looks the Personas are sexy without too much bling and now you can also get magnetic grills. 

If you set them up correctly they are astonishing.

If you are in our neck of the woods New Jersey?NY Metro we have them on display in our shop.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I would add that there are two distinct strategies you can imploy:

1: Preamp/processor and amp this will give you the ease of integrating TV and alloy for easy transition to surround sound Pros/Cons paying for stuff you are not using right now, and less resolution with lower quality dacs built into preamp/processor, depending on unit some have decent music streaming.

2: High end integrated amplifier which would sound best for music, and you can add a surround sound receiver if and when you decide to do Home Theater, many of today’s integrated amplifiers have a Home Theater bypass function so it is easy to do so. The only con with this approach is you would have to add the surround receiver later.

As I mentioned before it is easy to set up the TV to output audio to a high end integrated

Products like the Naim Uniti have wonderful music streaming app and have buiilt in Tidal and Spotify connect, Apt X Blue tooth. Airplay and Google Chromecast. So you can basically stream the world with a nearly unlimited supply fo music.

Another cool feature is Roon integration is coming to Naim, the Micromega shows up with Airplay. 

Another nice thing with the Naim sleek not to big and not to heavy, all you would need would be one set of speaker cables,

Also if you have a wife and family the Naim app is super easy to use and makes an excellent way to add whole house audio with products from the Naim Muso line, think Sonos but better.

The Micromega is similar to the Naim in some ways a bit better does not have a great app, but does have an excellent room correction feature that can help tame live rooms, which many Florida houses tend to have.

With both the Naim or Micromega products you would have money left over for a good set of speaker cables and a sub.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I absolutely would say Personas.  

Nothing against the B&W, as I think these are the best line they have ever made (and I appreciate the look), but I just think the Personas are more coherent in the mid/treble region, more holographic, and better looks by a little bit.  The main reason, is amazingly enough, the Personas are considerably more engaging and musical to me and every one of my friends who are into audio (one being a die hard B&W fan who has had the old school 801’s, and the just barely discontinued 802s).
 
Paradigm made something very special.   I just wish the price jump from 3F to 5f got you a bigger performance leap, but according to Paradigm, they underpriced the 3F to hit a magical price point.  Once you realize that, the cost of the rest of the line makes sense.  The 3F is definitely a steal at the asking price.

yeah seriously, the802d measurements are really bad.
harman room demonstarete that the JBL lsr6332 in a blind test is prefered over the 800D