Benzman, as a Persona Dealer, we absolutely loved your findings.
We would love to sell the A3 for no other reason then they will certaintly be one of the most looked at speakers in that price point and it would add to our outstanding selection of Legacy, Paradigm, KEF, Quad, Dali, ATC, and Elac lines.
With that being said and not having direct experience with the A3 we have always found the Magico line to be extremely well crafted but a bit too refined in their presentation, they were not bright and not dull the sound just seemed to lay there, without any striking qualities for our taste.
The Paradigm Personas may be a controversial product that some people may find bright but we find when they are matched correctly to be one of the most holographic and most transparent speaker systems for the price out there and the bass of the 3F is also surprisingly deep down to 24hz in room which is very similar to the Magico’s bass response of 22hz with a bit greater efficiency.
We would also agree with you that the Persona's can play loudly without distortion, our 9F are being driven by a T+A power amplifier which provides 300watts into an 8ohm load and 500 watts into a 4 ohm load and we can play this system at ear bleeding levels without strain.
We also believe in the attribute of having the exact same material for the tweeter and midrange being both Beryilium being a huge advantage in having a very coherent sounding loudspeaker.
At this point there are a few standout new loudspeakers at or around this price point which are very exciting and very high value products that bring the cost of owning a state of the art loudspeaker down in price.
We would say the Personas, the Magico A3, the Kef Reference line and the Sopras’s are four of the best at these price points for the clarity and tranparency camp.
In our minds the Legacy’s Focus are going to be very hard to beat if your tastes go to the warmer richer presentation with deep and puncy bass response.
The Focus are way more efficient, play louder and go lower than most of the other high end loudspeakers from most of the major manufacturers.
We love the Legacy’s for all of their outstanding attributes and superb value for the dollar wlhat is interesting is the sheer difference in bass that you can only get from a larger 12 inch bass driver vs the 7 inch woofers of both the Magico A3 and the Persona 3F, the smaller bass drivers are impressive for their speed and how much deep bass both Magico and Pardigm can get out of these small high tech woofers, but neither of these speakers can do the amount of sheer bass output without distortion that the Legacy’s can put out.
One lovely comment at the last New York Audio Show a person came up to Bill Dudeleston and exclaimed that the Aeris at $25k sounded better than most of the $60k and above loudspeakers he has heard.
We have the previlage of having three reference grade loudspeaker lines Kef, Paradigm and Legacy on display and each of these wondeful lines have their own personalities.
After having been in this industry for over 30 years all of these manuacturers should be congratulated for creating something truly remarkable for a somewhat affordable price point.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
