Are the Paradigm Founder Series really, really good speakers?

The Founder 100's are amazing, I demod them for a few hours and was blown away by them. They honestly have me 2nd guessing my Paradigm Tributes that I use for my front left/right. At ~5k for the pair its a no brainer when comparing to 10k pairs, I can see them undercutting the lower end persona models on bang for buck(the personas are better...but are they really 10-12k better?).

I'm not sure the founders center channel 90c(which I own)is better than the cc-690 v5(which I also own), the highs/mids are definitely better on the 90c but the 690 digs juuuust a little bit deeper which I notice on deeper baritone voices in movies. The 690 also has a much beefier enclosure, like 35lbs heavier over the founders. The founders is gorgeous with the grills on or off.  

I also demod the founders 40B(bookshelf stand mounts) as my rear 6th and 7th channel in my system for a month, which were replacing my studio 40 v3. They had a cleaner upper range, but I thought they were a bit underwhelming in the lower end, the studios were for sure a better all around speaker, but if you crossover at 80hz I didn't really notice much of a difference between the two, and the 40Bs just seemed quieter/smaller vs the 40s. The founders bookshelfs again were absolutely gorgeous though with the grills off. 

Hope that helps?

daaajester,The persona's are true destination speakers that thrive in a system built around them. The founder line is more affordable and will likely sound better in a multi purpose room/system.

Steve59, No disagreement from me. I listened to the 7f in their own room being driven by 1.2kw Mcintosh amps, and I forget the source(equally impressive). In a dedicated 2ch setup, for that price point they are some of the best speakers I have ever experienced, but at 26k I wouldn’t say they are worth 3x what the founders 120hs are.. or 6 times the 100f’s.

The founders line is really really impressive for its price point. You could literally have a 6 speaker founder 120h setup in 5.1 config for the price of 1 pair of persona 7f’s.