Paradigm Persona series

@audiotroy

"Most truly high resolution loudspeakers will only come alive with the right group of components."

Says the guy who sells crazy expensive cables, iso-footers etc.

Will a better source, amp, pre-amp and ROOM make a difference, sure. But that goes for just about any speaker above 2k.

But a "great" speaker shouldn’t need uber-expensive everything to outperform a "less resolving" speaker.

Take say, a Focal Sopra 2 and a Persona 7F, and something mid-fi, say a paradigm Halo A21, and a reasonable pre-amp, similar source, room etc.

The 7f should outperform the Sopra 2 hands down at almost 2x the price, without needing uber expensive everything.

In fairness, I don’t care for either speaker. (I think the Focus SE wipes the floor with both to take speakers in your line-up).

Keep shilling bro.

Trudat, your naivity shows through.

There are many speakers above $2k that will sound good with most electronics, however, most $2k to $10k speakers don’t have the same level of resolution, how do we know we sell many of them:

we sell Elac Adantes, PSB T3, Legacy Signatures, Kef R Series, ATC, Cabasse and a few others.

when you reach into the uber high resolution loudspeakers especially speakers in the $10k and above price range from Paradigm, Magico, Rockport, Rahido, and others they will not sound good on just any set of electronics, they must be matched with the right gear to sound good.

The Sopras are tuned a bit warmer and are a bit more forgiving then the the Personas, we have heard the Sopras and they are very nice speakers they don’t have the same degree of clarity nor do they image as well, they are lovely musical speakers.

As per the Focus Se wipping the floor we have them as well, and they don’;t wipe the floor over the Kef Reference line nor the Paradigm tney sound distinctly colored and veiled compared to either the Kef’s or the Paradigms, not saying that is a bad thing they are tuned to be musical.

The Focus are fantastic speakers but they are tuned warm in the midrange, a slightly recessed top end and big warm full bass, they are very easy to setup with almost anything because they don’t have the same level of clarity or soundstage specificity that the Paradigms do

In fact the Focus tend to sound better on brighter electronics

We heard Wilson XLF on Boulder with DCS and Nordost and the sound was unlististenable, we heard the less expensive Wilson Alexx with Krell and Nordost cabling and the sound was fantastic, so yes pairing is everything.

Just the same way when we tried out electronics with the Paradigms and the Polymers, we tried CJ, Electrocompaniet, Manley Labs, Devialet, Chord, Thrax and finally T+A which sounded the best out of all of these products.

A great system requires careful setup with the right matching components.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Paradigm, Legacy, Kef dealers

@trudat: I think you mean the Parasound Halo line which many don’t believe is mid-fi at all. Anyway I do see your point and this is perhaps one of the more frustrating aspects of the high end, i.e. dealers that believe just because you can stretch/reach for a $25,000 speaker means oh sure, just lets just spend another $25,000 on a new power amp, and another $25,000 on a new pre-amp and on, hey, how about those $1500 power cords, they will really bring it all together...I mean it does seem like it never ends. But of course they ARE in business to make money. I assume you work somewhere in a business that umm, exists to, umm, make money too. So I also try to keep in mind that dealers often DO have alot of experience with different lines...so often I guess my job is to separate out what I value about the advice I receive from dealers and what I can toss aside.  And again of course they're just ultimately trying to stay in business trying to make a buck, and I can remind myself I'm in charge of wallet, not the dealer.  And the only person I have to please is myself.

Pwinson it has nothing to do with cost. The Persona 3F sound very good on a Naim Uniti Atom which is a $3k intergrated, they sound way better on a Naim Uniti Nova a $7.5k intregrated amp, and they sound so much better on the Naim NAC 272 preamp/dac and the Nap 250 a $13k combo.

Does that mean that the Naim Atom didn't sound great for the money it sounded terrific, however, the sound took on much more bass, greater dynamic impact and greater clarity with the more expensive gear.

Part of the equation is matching gear, think of it this way a $90k Porsche can be rendered nearly undriveable with low octane fuel and the wrong quality and grade of tires. Buy a Porsch be prepared to feed it right.

We have put together some very good sounding Persona systems that were not crazy expensive but with a set of speakers this resolving you can easily hear everything good and bad in the setup. 

As per cost yes there are really good $5k amps however, most of the time they still leave some sonic signature that is not seen with the better gear.

We love the T+A gear and the $12,5k 2500R sounds amazing with the Personas, however, the $23k T+A PA 3100HV really takes the speakers to levels they just couldn't get to with the lower gear.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Pesona dealers

@audiotroy 

Ah yes, my "naivity" shows... of course, if that was a real word we could debate that.  I believe the word you meant to use was naivete (with an accent over the final e) or heck even naivety... or heck in plain spoken english... "my lack of experience".

Frankly, something you should hope your customers have when pushing cables, acoustic isolation systems etc... that cost damn near what the components and speakers cost.  

Sure, I don't own a store but you know 35 or so years of building audio systems, components etc. Should count for something.  But maybe I'm just a dolt.

Bottom line, a 25k speaker should not need a 25k amp to sound outstanding.  You more or less double talk in your later post regarding the 3f, amazing enough all the Naim gear sounds great with it.

Want to see a dealer adding value to the board?  Head on over to the digital board.  Jimclarkstereo offering an exciting new piece and making it real easy to try.

Sure it's not a paid add, but its better than constant shilling and twisting about how everything he sells somehow outperforms the original posters question.  Putting his money where his "post" is.