Paradigm Persona series

djverne,

Honestly don’t know what you are hearing with that setup,

a couple of questions:

1: Were the speakers toed in?

2: What kind of cabling was being used?

3: What was the source?

There are a few really weird things in your description the midrange is anything but recessed, the top end tends to be hot, with a lot of air, so you had something rolling off a lot of detail.

You said the coherency  was average compared to what which speakers are in your mind coherent.

Love to know more about the place you heard them, your findings are very different than what most people find about the speakers.

Could it be that you perhaps didn't like the Mcintosh with the Paradigms, the sound you are describing could be very attributed to the Mcintoh amplifiers which are not very transparent but tend to sound warm and rolled off due to their design. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

Heaven forbid anyone critique the Personas, right? Give it a rest.

Will post more tmrw but the following  other speakers I compare them too:
Fritz Carbon 7
Merlim TSM
Acsend NRt 
Dynaudio 110
Dynaudio 160
Modified Fritz 7 ( DIY modified speaker for nearfied— courtesy of Fritz selling me the parts)
Fritz Rev 5
Pmc TB2
 
will not post the seller cause there local and while the salesmen knew alltbabout TVs when I asked him about the Dac that the Macintosh amp used he really did t know what I was talking about. That’s ok but I really think 3 things stood out:
1. The Dac could have expanding the sound stage
2. The Macintosh integrated amp held back the top air and magnified some type of audible distortion that my ear caught right away in the crossover region (tweeter and midrange)
3. Midrange was just not that great. It sounded disjointed like old reviews of lesser popular pricey sound fabor models ( and usher).
4. Speaker was all control and low treble (berillluim tweeter)
5. Midrange just wasn’t great. Could put a system together with a full range Fostex, or Mark audio with sub and Low pow set and get same quality and 1/3 price in midrange.
6. Tweeter really was great, Beriluim..nice
7. Wide sound stage with great attack... just disjointed sound
8. Sorry to say and many other people won’t notice but after hearing a perfect transional crossover in speakers like the Merlin, Fritz (Series crossover) and the. My own full range diy (Mark audio Drivers) , the Personas crossover stood out like a Blond house wife with fake t****. Sorry no other way to sugar coat it.

djverne, interesesting, every speaker you mentioned as liking are Two way speakers, vs a three way loudspeaker.

Could it be that you don't like a three way loudspeaker?

Also almost every loudspeaker has a soft dome tweeter that you mentioned. 

You are also assuming that the speakers are set up correctly at this person's house?

The reality is that ANY high resolution loudspeaker will be totally dependent on the equipment your are driving it with, the quality of the playback gear, and the cabling, then factor in the room's acoustics as well as postioning and you are going to hear glorious sound or horrible sound.

Yes you might not like the speakers but your findings are hard to extrapolate as to what was the issue with the setup.

We would welcome you to hear the Pesona series setup with the right gear in the right room at our shop, they are marvelous loudspeakers when setup correctly, they are however, very picky about what you use with them, they will show you everything both good and bad with the setup. Unlike other high performance loudspeakers they have both a Beryillium tweeter and midrange and therefore are going to show you everything in that stream, if the dac was sup par you are going to instantly hear it. 

Also with a three way loudspeaker you are going to be much more aware of coherence issues with placement and sitting distances, if you are too close you might not find the drivers blending correctly, other issues can be toe in as well.

We are not saying that the Personas are for everyone, there are people that are not going to be in love with their remarkable clarity if comming from certain much warmer voiced loudspeakers if that is their predilection, but it certantly sounds that you did not hear them at anywhere near their best. 

It is like a panel guy who loves panels most direct radiating loudspeakers are going to "sound" wrong to that listener. 

Sometimes it is a case of listener bias and or preference while others are going to be down to setup.

You mention a whole host of speakers you like however, you did not compare a single one in the same enviornment to the Paradigms, so your logic and testing methodology is not exactly the same.

You may want to relisten to the speakers at a Pardigm dealer and you might think differently about them or not. 

When we judge loudspeakers, amplifiers, or dacs, we don't just use one sampling before we get a picture of the line, we often will hear said product at multiple shows before we get a real impression or better yet at our shop and testing under known circumstances.

Good luck.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

I’ve visited Paradigm dealers where 75% of the salespeople will candidly admit that they prefer a competitor to the Persona line at similar cost for their home systems, and no these aren’t all people who don’t appreciate clarity or who lean towards warm sounding speakers because in some cases the preferred competitor also uses beryllium.

Horses for courses. Everybody likes what they like and it’s all subjective anyway.

I love the sound of Spendor, but no doubt there are some who would say Spendors sound terrible, and I wouldn’t tell them they’re wrong or that they must have heard Spendor in a bad setup. I’d realize that they just prefer a different sound than I do.

Now if if they say any candy bar other than Mounds is best, then we’ll have to take it outside ... : )

i heard a not cheap Klipsch setup today playing on a five figure Esoteric amp at a dealer and I swear it was one of the worst sounding speakers I’d ever heard in the cost range, but there was another customer there just eating it up and I could tell that to him it was sonic perfection.