Paradigm Persona series

@milkdud Before you spend any money on speakers you should evaluate the room. electronics, speakers, and wires and decide if everything is optimized. The room being the most important in my view. You can put an incredible speaker in a bad room and it won't sound incredible.

Your speakers seem like they are pretty good from what I remember of the Usher Tiny Dancer and the Be20 that I heard. 

I worked with GIK acoustics remotely to help tame my office room and my simple KEF LS50s sounded incredible afterwards.

Actually a few minutes ago I rearranged some things in my living room where the LS50's now reside with a KEF KC62 sub and I was so happy with the results. It saved me a ton of money because I don't think I will change this setup for a while. The LS50 are bettered by the new LS50 Meta and the KEF Reference 1 but I could have bought one of those better speakers and had bad sound unless I fixed my room first.

BTW - If you want uber detail (like my living room system) demo some very quiet gear. 

I won’t argue with the personas being more transparent with better imaging I would suggest the bass integration is also phenomenal wrt personas, but the ushers are considerably less fussy to placement and partnering electronics. 

The problem many of us have with the Persona's are the highs. They are tipped up a bit when measured properly. This will allow them to artificially sound more open maybe, but they are fatiguing to many, but not all.

this is why you must audition in your room.  I'd personally never spend a dime on a speaker without auditioning it, but that's me. I also don't buy speakers that often and when I do, it's usually to upgrade within the same company.  I've only owned Proac and Vandersteen's since the 1990's (for my main system).  I've owned JM Labs (now known as Focal) in a bedroom system and loved them.  I also have owned Paradigms for another den system and enjoyed them with their top sub in the day, but they weren't bright teh way I find their newer speaker designs.  I have had many folks bring speakers to the house to audition over the years, but nothing so far has me changing from my Steen's.  

Rooms are important, but if you find a speaker to bright in a store, it will most probably not be that much better in your room (although it's amazing what a room will do to sound, lol).  Conversely it also won't change the sound of a dull speaker either and there are plenty of those on teh market too as there are plenty who like that sound.

We are all sensitive to different things and I find most listeners audition and try to hear what they are told to listen for by dealers who are trying to sell their speakers.  That's fine. I personally have always trusted my own ears. I also take away the remote from anyone I am listening with so no one gooses the volume etc...  

I personally found years ago that I like the time and phase correct designs best as long as they are implemented properly.  There have been only a few designers who make their speakers this way as it's not easy and it's not cheap to do it.  The original Thiels, Meadowlark, Vandersteen and Dunleavy and Green Mountain Audio are some. I think Maggies and Emminent Technologies are also time and phase correct.  They have to be first order in order for this to be true.  Wilson and others may claim they are, but they aren't.  

JMHO...