Paradigm persona vs. Monitor audio Platinum

P8 W8

Urbie,

Another point, just because a reviewer selects a loudspeaker doesn't mean that that loudspeaker is better or worse than anything else.

There a number of factors which determine why a reviewer selects a set of loudspeakers.

The first is of course sound, the second is looks, the third is how compatible is his gear and the synergy which may have favored the Monitors 

The last part is the sneaky one, many companies give reviewers ridiculous deals to purchase gear rather than having to send it back.

We have heard the Monitors at Axpona and do believe CAP and came away less than thrilled at each demo of the Monitors.  Where they bad no they were not,  they sounded decent just not amazing, we also heard Magico and didn't like them either. 

We could easily get the line, the point is you have to first be interested enough to want to bring in a line, and again after hearing them on several occasions they never sounded good enough to warrant bringing in a pair to test.

Again at a show you can''t always get the best demo, however, you can get a good idea of how a product may perform. 

At the last Axpona show the winners that we thought  best sound were Wilson, Golden Ear, Vimberg, we thought the Persona 3F demo was good but disagreed with the choice of cabling and server which would have made them sound even better, the demo with the Persona 3F on a $4,500.00 Anthem integrated amp was not perfect the Persona 3F sounded absolutely amazing for a $10k speaker. gigantic soundstage, the speakers totally disappeared, and the bass was very deep and tight and the improvement with a $6,500.00 sub was somewhat anti-climatic as the 3F has such impressive bass in that demo.

Again a tad bright, which is why we recommend an Innuous sever over the Aurender server, we play them with PCM transcoded to DSD and use warmer cables which add some tone color as the Anthem STR integrated isn't' a particularly warm amplifier.

Urbie you don't sound like a regular consumer you seem to have an axe to grind with Paradigm and an agenda to promote Monitor Audio.

We would be more than happy to bring in the line just have not found a reason to do so.

Dave and Troy
Audio  Doctor NJ 

Actually audio Troy I don't have any axe to grind at all I just go by what I hear. And here's a more telling response. I just talked to a dealer here in Vancouver ayreborne audio video who sells both the paradigm persona and the monitor audio Platinum and I asked him point-blank monitor audio platinum or paradigm persona and he said without even hesitation monitor audio Platinum and then I asked him do you find the paradigm persona bright and forward in the top-end and he said yes and he also said that the monitor are more natural sounding. So there you go that's from a dealer of both. So anybody that has any ears that are tuned to the way instrument sound in real life and the voice sounds in real life will never pick paradigm because they are bright and forward and edgy sounding and anybody that can't hear that I guess their hearing is not so good.

That's because if you brought in the Platinum line you wouldn't be selling too many paradigm because they are that much better the soundstage is wider deeper the air and space between the instruments is better just like jworth said when he compared both of them on his system. And since I could afford $15,000 speakers I can afford just about pretty much anything but why would I spend $25,000 on a pair of 7fs when the 15000 and $18,000 Platinum 200 and 300 are much better?I will put my $60,000 Canadian system up against $200,000 and I guarantee you it'll beat it because I put it together with my ears not just my pocketbook.

It doesn’t make sense that a speaker works well with 95% of all electronics. There are too many variables to make that true. No way that a speaker with a First Watt amp will sound the same as one with a Audio Research 160M. Yes an extreme example but speakers have sonic and electronic characteristics as do amplifiers.