Paradigm Persona series

Actually Cmsgolf, bright can be very accurate, if your recording for example was from,  Deustshe Graphaphon, and made in the mid 80's or a Telarc,  digital recording in the mid 80's tended to sound bright due to the digital encoders  and mixing consoles at the time, and they sound bright on the playback that is accurate as those are the sound of those recordings.

You also failed to understand that even if  the gentleman found them "bright" we can tune that out by something as simple as a playback change in Roon. 

We did not have the time to really go into and explore changes that can be made by playing with different gear and software  changes which affect playback.

The demo was a bit rushed and we started with a different set of speakers before switching to the Personas and then we swtiched electronics, we encouraged Mr. Hofer to come back for a much greater extended session where we can play a wider variety of tracks on different gear.

And as hell is freezing over, we are agreeing with grgr4blu on something and he is acutally being nice,  that Mcintosh tends to sound warm and veiled a bit, and that Mcintosh or similarly voiced electronics, actually Naim sounds a bit like that in a good way are the keys to making the Personas sound good.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

Let's try this Dave and Troy.

Given the same electronics, the Persona will typically sound brighter than most other speakers.

So yes, electronics matter, but the bottom line is most people will find the Persona's bright given a head to head with 95% of other speakers.

Even your system matching genius, uber cables, stands, and decoupling isoacoustic magic and power conditioning.... won't change that.  Given a head to head with the same electronics - they are bright to most people.

I don't really think anyone has said they are bad speakers.

It is rather amusing to see people so animated about disparaging the Persona line. We are just talking about audio speakers here right?

Whatever the case, for the folks who want to help others from making the mistake of buying a Persona and then having their hearing diminished. How about stating what would be a better choice? Maybe describe what you own so people can calibrated what your ears are happy with.

I mean stating this is, "bad, bad, bad", only can carry a discussion (maybe an argument) so far. How about some good options from some of you golden ears.

Trudat, your point is quite erronuous. We sell Kef, Dali, Legacy, Cabasse, ATC, Elac, and Retheym these are all great loudspeakers each has a different personality.

There are classes of loudspeakers which are more accurate and more detailed and there are those that are warmer and more recessed in the treble.

Your presumption is that you just change loudspeakers, no you change whatever you need to with any loudspeakers to bring out the results you are trying to accheive. 

It all comes down to setup if you have a speaker which the listener perceives as a brighter sound and they love the clarity but find it is too much then you alter the cabling, electronics, digital, processing etc to tune the speaker so the clarity remains but the top end is a bit wamer, hence we tend to recommend the Naim, Krell, T+A, or Anthem electronics with the Paradigms.

The corrollary is also true if you have a wamer loudspeaker, Dali, Legacy they tend to pair very well with brighter electronics: Musical Fidelity, Nad M32, Anthem STR.

Mentioned that Mr. Hoffer did not leave us with a lot of time to explore how we can tune the Personas, also we did not evaluate a lot of different recordings mostly the ones on his thumb drive. Given a bit more time even a simple software settinng in Roon can totally add more wamth to the sound of the Personas it is really that simple.

Yes there will be people who will not like that much clarity, if you prefer the vocing of a Harbeth or a Vandersteen or any other loudspeaker which tends to have a softer presentation you most likely will not like the Persona.

Mr. Hofer’s comment that a $10k Persona was very close compeition to a $17k set of Wilsons does show that the 3F are an outstanding value, you can do a lot of tuning with $7k now can’t you?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

I heard the 7f being driven by STR separates last weekend , This is a long thread so I might be repeating myself. Detailed and fast with a top end that I could compare to the focal electra 1028be meaning fed a good recording they really moved me and poor recordings became 2 dimensional and boring. If I didn't know better I would have taken advantage of the offer the dealer made me right then. The Persona measures a bit like a smiley face but I never got the impression the mids were recessed. I also didn't find them bright as much as unforgiving of poor recordings. Bass was as tight and fast as the 3f but much deeper and the sound stage and images within were amazing.
I'm lucky that I have dealers that will let me home demo a product i'm interested in in fact they demand it! How's that for policy.