Paradigm Persona series

@pwhinson I have heard a ton of Magico speakers. They are rather popular out here in the West Coast. I have heard some costing $150K+ (maybe $200K+) to the A3.

I did a very long and fruitful audition of the Magico A3 with Mark Levinson gear and I was trying to figure out how to fit the A3 into my small office. During, this figuring out phase I started to look at DSP capable preamps to help fit a floor stander into a smaller space. If I could figure that out I would have bought the A3. 

However, during the DSP preamp search I stumbled onto the Persona 5F and realized that the tweeter and mid range integration was more to my style on the Persona vs the Magico A3. So I am now going to buy a Persona 3F and use with a DSP preamp.

I had not really been a fan of the Magico's, most likely related to the cost aspect of them.  I only went to listen to the A3 because I have heard the Magico S3MKII at an audio show, in 3 rooms, and I was so surprised because it was the first Magico speaker that I thought I should consider.  I also heard the Magico S5MKII at the same show with much more expensive gear than with the S3MKII and did not like it. I attributed that to the electronics. The S5MKII is supposed to just be a bigger version of the S3MKII. A few people have questioned my sanity when I said I liked the Persona over the Magico and their arguments were similar to what we are seeing on this thread.

Another speaker I was considering but had to drop it because I was told is too big for my space was the Yamaha NS5000. I spoke with a NS5000 owner in Australia who either owned the Magico S5 or his brother owned it. His feedback was that the best mid-range he has ever heard was on the Yamaha. He preferred it to the Magico. It is a shame that I cannot fit the Yamaha because it seems like a incredibly interesting speaker. All 3 drivers are made from the same material that is supposed to be faster and lighter than BE. If you want more info on this one just PM me and I will send you some contact info.

The Vivid Kaya 90 which I heard reminded me a bit of the KEF Blades. That was the 3rd speaker in my list for my small space (actually the Kaya 45 would be what I would have ordered). It was a tossup between the Vivid and Persona but I started to consider cost and the side firing woofers of the Vivid in a small space and the Persona made more sense.

I forgot to added in the previous comment that I liked the Magico S3MKII much more than the Magico A3. However, the S3MKII is too big for my room.

BTW - I am not an audio historian but it seems to me that the Yamaha NS1000 was the precursor to the Paradigm Persona.

@yyzsantabarbara  Thanks again for all this info.  I would love to audition the Vivid line but alas again I have to travel from Atlanta to another major city to find those.  I heard the A3 a few days ago but it was in a tiny room, poorly setup.  They're moving those speakers into a large room.  They do have good electronics on everything they sell, primarily VAC tube gear.  After listening this morning I've played with placement a little bit but I'm finding the Persona's produce a more diffuse sound field, less localization and large images of individual instruments than the Thiels.  Part of that may be my room...I'm convinced that a very large rectangular room, placement of large floor standers on the long side, well well away from side walls and 3-4 feet from the back wall is the ideal positioning for imaging/soundstaging.  The most incredible depth and image localization I've heard anywhere -- don't laugh -- is on a system using JBL M2 monitors powered by huge Crown industrial digital amps which are kept in another room.  I rolled my eyes when I first saw this system but the imaging and depth of individual instruments in the soundfield and the localization of properly sized (small) images of individual instruments just blows everything else out of the water that I've heard.  Not sure how much of this friend's success is due to his large rectangular room with high ceilings but its really astonishing.  I don't have the desire to go that route, but it is what it is.  It was amazing.  And over the 30 some odd years I've been in this hobby I've had my own assortment of high end electronics and speakers (Sound Labs(!), Martin Logans, Thiels, Magnepans, Audio Research power, preamps, dacs, etc.  Of course we're talking about several decades there.  It may sound like I change speakers every minute but I don't really.  Just looking for that last "best" speaker I can find.

Interesting take on your friends room. I also have a medium sized rectangular room downstairs that is currently my toddlers play area. That room has a 25 foot ceiling and would likely sound rather great with the KEF Blade. Just have to wait a few years to test out that theory.

The persona 9h for $20k if it could be done could be the solution. 1400 watts with 4 bass drivers have me salivating... Don’t they have ARC built in? I would jump on it. I can't let a white coat lab rat tell me what I like better because a tweeter does or doesn't have a waveguide there's so much more to the final design and in my room wide dispersion speakers soundstage like crap, everything else being equal if a flat response was all it took as cheap as digital processing is these days all speakers would sound the same. I sold my salon 2's to a gent that's driving them with a pair of mc 601's and he says they put them into protection! The 9h would rock with my puny little integrated.

I copied and pasted from the $20k thread where another poser suggested with the sale going on til the end of the month a pair of 9h for $20k might not be out of the realm of possibility...