Paradigm Persona B Loudspeakers Professional Review

Mzkmxcv

Excuse me dude are you a loudspeaker designer/engineer?

I looked at the same plots you looked at and did not see many of the issues you mentioned. As per being overpriced compared to what?

Please mention a single loudspeaker on the market that uses a pure Beryillium midrange driver? Can you find a single loudspeaker that is under $40k that has a Beryillium midrange driver, even Focal, has not figured out how to make such a driver, and you have one here in a $7k set of speakers.

Aside from the remarkable clarity of the Beryllium midrange you have a 100% coherent sound because you have exactly the same material for both the woofer and the tweeter. This is a huge advantage.

Paradigm has a very large and talented engineering staff that spent $4 million dollars developing all the technologies present in this line of loudspeakers do you not think that they have the test gear to make accurate measurements?

Most home measurements are not the same as what you would get in a lab due to the wildly unpredicable effects of furniture and room construction which is why lab measurements are delivered by the manufacturer. If you have a sparse room without a lot of damping you may also get a high frequency rise, which is why lab measurements in an anchoic chamber are much more accurate.

As per value the Personas have been compared to much more expensive loudspeakers and are considered a value for the sheer amount and calibre of their engineering.

Last point any very high resolution loudspeaker may sound bright if the equipment or room is not working well with them.

Lastely we have sold and setup many pairs of these loudspeakers in clients homes and they sound fantastic.

One of our clients has the 9H with the remarkable T+A electronics and he plays a Steinway, we played the same recording on the speakers and it was very similar.

Dave and Troy, Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

audiotroy

I looked at the same plots you looked at and did not see many of the issues you mentioned.

Uhh, the 5dB rise from 4kHz to 10kHz, can you not see that? Can you also not see the dip at ~1400Hz off-axis? Paradigm can’t even do phase coherence in the crossover region.

Please mention a single loudspeaker on the market that uses a pure Beryillium midrange driver? Can you find a single loudspeaker that is under $40k that has a Beryillium midrange driver, even Focal, has not figured out how to make such a driver, and you have one here in a $7k set of speakers.

Exactly, so if it’s rare for <$40K, why would you expect it to be good for $7K? That’s like saying “This car looks like a Bugatti but only costs $20K!”; the looks are there, but the internals are not.

100% coherent sound because you have exactly the same material for both the woofer and the tweeter. This is a huge advantage.

That’s not that big of an advantage. You can use a RAAL ribbon tweeter, a ceramic midrange, and a woofer made of traditional material, which is exactly what Salk does in their higher end speakers. The only benefit Beryylium has is it’s lighter and faster than material like Aluminum.

Paradigm has a very large and talented engineering staff that spent $4 million dollars developing all the technologies present in this line of loudspeakers do you not think that they have the test gear to make accurate measurements?

I bet they do, but with the compromises of using Beryllium for that price range, no amount of tweaking (besides boosting some response via the crossover, which raises distortion) can help them. It’s like doing open heart surgery with rusty equipment, no matter how good the surgeon is, you’ll still cause damage.

Most home measurements are not the same as what you would get in a lab due to the wildly unpredicable effects of furniture and room construction which is why lab measurements are delivered by the manufacturer. If you have a sparse room without a lot of damping you may also get a high frequency rise, which is why lab measurements in an anchoic chamber are much more accurate.

These measurements are done by the National Research Center of Canada, in an anechoic chamber; it’s where Dr. Toole worked before he came to Harman.

As per value the Personas have been compared to much more expensive loudspeakers and are considered a value for the sheer amount and calibre of their engineering.

A decade ago they made good stuff for the price, not anymore, same with B&W. It’s like people who say REL makes the best subs, it’s not, ID brands like Rythmik/HSU/PSA are better, and by a large margin.

If it was a blind test and done with good brands (Revel and KEF, not Wilson Audio), then no, there is 0% chance they’d come out as superior. I’ve helped out quite a bit of people with large budgets, and every time they were considering a high end brand that’s not good, like Wilson, I told them to consider competitors like the KEF Blade 2 or Revel Salon2, and every single time they told me I was right and it blew away the other ones, which is 100% to be expected based on the measurements.

One of our clients has the 9H with the remarkable T+A electronics and he plays a Steinway, we played the same recording on the speakers and it was very similar.

If you played a G7 and then compared it to a B8, they would not sound the same, the B8 would be way too emphasied.

And again, a counterpoint you didn’t bring up was what I said about the specs. Sorry, but It’s hard respect a company selling high end gear that give misleading, sometimes even false, claims.

For less than half the price of the Persona B, you can get an Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower with RAAL upgrade, and it will sound much better.

Not trying to sound like a prick, but I just don’t like it when people spend a lot of money and don’t get the best for the money (like buying a car made by GM instead of an Asian or German one).

Mzkmcx,

You miss many of the points that are raised. The NRC measurements are not necessarily the same as the response that Paradigm engineered into the speakers. Unless you talk to the developement engineers you have no idea of what kind of response that they were striving for when used in a real room.

Also you can see that the on axis response is different than the off axis ones, perhaps that is why we find the speakers to work well with toe in. 

Paradigm has their own Anchoic chamber and again spent $4 million dollars developing these speakers, so do you honestly think that  Paradigm doesn't know what they are doing and a tiny gnat of a company that nearly no ones knows about has managed to out engineer one of the largest speaker manufacturers in North America?

There is no compromise in the Beryillium midrange drivers, Paradigm can afford to develop one and it is a superior to a Ceramic one. We have heard many speakers with Ceramic midrange drivers and invariably that have a somewhat artifical quality in the midrange. 

A set of Persona B with a good subwoofer willl challange a lot of true reference speakers, which is their value. 

As per holding their own vs Kef, we have the Ref 1 and in many ways the Persona B have an even more natural midrange. 

As per your last comment: Not trying to sound like a prick, but I just don’t like it when people spend a lot of money and don’t get the best for the money (like buying a car made by GM instead of an Asian or German one).

Please tell the forum in what way is a GM Cadillac or a Corvette not a remarkable performer for the money, The brand new Corvette is heads and shoulders in build quality vs their older models.  The CTS models have many fans even compared to Mercedes and BMW. 

Our Persona 9H are remarkable loudspeakers that can challange any expensive reference speaker, many reviewers have gone on the record to extoll just how remarkable the new Persona series is even compared to the best reference loudspeakers.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I think a small company with 1 or 2 good designers that have total control over the finished product can be a good thing if they have the expertise, experience and a good ear. I'm sure many of you understand how the bureaucracy of a larger company can get in the way of making good decisions, progress, or the ability to innovate.  Ever heard the phrase too many cooks in the kitchen? Never heard the Ascends.