Paradigm Persona series

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. 

There is a reason that many loudspeakers will sell and all sound so different.  There is a lot of disinformation out there about many lines and some comes from boards.  Folks all hear differently and all too often dealers will discuss others speakers and claim they have heard, them, but really haven't heard the new models etc...  I've even heard about a specific dealer talking to another dealer about a speaker he carries.  Come to find out the dealer who claims he has heard this line was talking about the 8k speaker and thinking it was the 60k speaker.

This is a major problem in high end audio.  Another problem to ME, is that system matching IS so important.  It's why you can't get a component of the month or year and put that with another and hope to have great sound.  I own Vandy's as all know.  In order for them to sound their best, they need a zero feedback amp.  Not difficult to find anymore and not difficult to set up.

To ME, if you have to go nuts tuning any speaker, then why buy it?  Why not just get a speaker that sounds great to you with a bunch of different amps. If a speaker is good, it will show the difference in anything in your chain.  It's not a difficult thing.  This is how we get into folks having to justify their sale or purchase.  As I've always said, if you love them, that's awesome.  Not saying that in a gratuitous way either.  That's from the heart man as it's all about the music and enjoyment.  

I must have gobs of micro and macro detail.  I want to hear it all, but I need to listen for hours on end and not just for an hour.  I usually don't need more than a half hour with a speaker to know it's not my cup of tea, but I do need much more time to know if it is THE cup of tea (hope that makes sense).

It's all good, but some are calling some speakers softer, but that shows they either havent' heard that speaker, or that they are so different than folks who have.  Just sayin.......

I have heard the Vandersteen about 5 times. The $7K CT version and the most expensive one. I think every time I heard them, except once (most recently),  Richard Vandersteen was in the same room. I thought I would like them more because I love Thiel, especially the CS3.7. However, the Vandersteen did not pull my strings to buy them. Now these demos were all under an hour and not using my demo tracks so maybe that had some bearing.

When I heard the following speakers under similar demo situations (not my demo tracks)  I thought I could easily live with any of them. I did not have the room then so I did not buy them.

Thiel CS3.7 (still wish I bought had this one)
KEF Blade (I will buy this soon now that I have room)
KEF Ref 1
KEF Ref 5
Vivid Kaya 90
Vivid Giya G1
Magico A3
Magico S3MK11
Paradigm Persona 5F
Wilson Alexa 1
Magnapan (for got the model #)

Revel Salon 1 (did buy this one long ago after a demo since I had space)

Maybe my hearing is geared towards a certain sound that is in the Persona camp. I have actually heard a ton more speakers, some mentioned on this thread,  but no need to mention them since they did not move me.