@mheinze When I first heard the Persona 5F with the Lyngdrof 2170 I was ready to go home after 5 minutes. I selected the Lyngdorf because of the DSP feature. We did not use DSP during the demo because the room was rather large and the DSP was not as crucial as in my office. I wanted a sense of the Lyngdorf without DSP (a pure amp test).
The Lyngdorf sans DSP was truly awful with the Persona 5F. I imagine it sounded exactly like you are describing in your demo. I asked the dealer if this sounded correct and he said no. He agreed it sounded bad. I asked what he demos the Persona with and he said Macintosh. I am not a big Mac fan and luckily they had sold all their Mac amps the previous month.
I asked them to use the analog preamp out (RCA) of the Lyndgorf and connect it to the Simaudio 860A amp (had to convert to XLR on the amp I think). This was a glorious sound. just fantastic. I liked it more that the Magico A3 and Mark Levinson combo. Most of the things I was looking for were very equivalent between the 2 speakers except that I got the sense that there was better integration of the tweeter and mid on the Persona.
I also listened to the Magico A3 with the Benchmark DAC3 + AHB2 amp and it was not as good as with the Mark Levinson 585 integrated. I sold the Benchmark gear after that. So this was a great example to me of how the pairing of gear is really important. Another reason I was willing to give the Persona more of a chance to shine.
The dealer mentioned to me that the Lyngdorf + Simaudio 860A combo was the best he had heard the Persona 5F. I can see how people have ran out after listening to the Persona. The top end can be bright with the wrong electronics. On the online forums I read a lot of people suggesting pairing up the Persona with amps that I think would be awful with then, such as, Bryston, Benchmark AHB2. I am sure others but these 2 are amps I have owned and I think they would not sound good with the Persona.
At the moment the Persona is my choice but I have a few more speakers to go. I would look for a warm sounding SS amp to drive the Persona. I do have concerns that the Persona may not be ideal for 8 hours, but that is just a guess. I will do another demo later with the DSP stuff and come to a better conclusion.
Being in Germany have you had the opportunity to hear the Yamaha NS 5000? Now that speaker has some radical design and material.
The Lyngdorf sans DSP was truly awful with the Persona 5F. I imagine it sounded exactly like you are describing in your demo. I asked the dealer if this sounded correct and he said no. He agreed it sounded bad. I asked what he demos the Persona with and he said Macintosh. I am not a big Mac fan and luckily they had sold all their Mac amps the previous month.
I asked them to use the analog preamp out (RCA) of the Lyndgorf and connect it to the Simaudio 860A amp (had to convert to XLR on the amp I think). This was a glorious sound. just fantastic. I liked it more that the Magico A3 and Mark Levinson combo. Most of the things I was looking for were very equivalent between the 2 speakers except that I got the sense that there was better integration of the tweeter and mid on the Persona.
I also listened to the Magico A3 with the Benchmark DAC3 + AHB2 amp and it was not as good as with the Mark Levinson 585 integrated. I sold the Benchmark gear after that. So this was a great example to me of how the pairing of gear is really important. Another reason I was willing to give the Persona more of a chance to shine.
The dealer mentioned to me that the Lyngdorf + Simaudio 860A combo was the best he had heard the Persona 5F. I can see how people have ran out after listening to the Persona. The top end can be bright with the wrong electronics. On the online forums I read a lot of people suggesting pairing up the Persona with amps that I think would be awful with then, such as, Bryston, Benchmark AHB2. I am sure others but these 2 are amps I have owned and I think they would not sound good with the Persona.
At the moment the Persona is my choice but I have a few more speakers to go. I would look for a warm sounding SS amp to drive the Persona. I do have concerns that the Persona may not be ideal for 8 hours, but that is just a guess. I will do another demo later with the DSP stuff and come to a better conclusion.
Being in Germany have you had the opportunity to hear the Yamaha NS 5000? Now that speaker has some radical design and material.