Paradigm Persona 5F

I struggle with a previous Kef owner liking the persona's. Being infatuated sure, even awestruck for a couple hours, but there's no comparison in how the speakers are voiced and i'm not saying one is better than the other, just different design goals.

Unlike you I had the ability to try them with several different components and I bought my pair.

Dali Epicon 8 speakers look sweet, I've always been interested in Dali. I had the Kef R105/3 with kube and bi amped they could push 114 db, freaking amazing, but I never got used to the missing mid bass hump we hear in most box speakers, also the tweeter lacked contrast compared to some speakers. I have a pair of persona 7f I demoed with 5 different amps over a year before deciding, talk about patience. Now they split time with my DSP8000se in the basement. What I think surprised me most about the persona 7f is how tight and articulate the bass is, They get all the accolades for the Be mid and tweeter I expected after some time to  be let down by the bass, but they still impress. 

There are speaker/amp combinations that fail to impress. I bought a pair of salon 2's after being smitten and after 6 months at home I'd had enough. The gent that bought them off me loved em connected to a pair of mac 601's. 

I had the R 107/2 at the same time as the R 105/3 and surprisingly the 107/2 was bright in comparison, more deep bass and the 105/3 was colored in the mids...A speaker can be bright if it isn't harsh or colored. If I put the personas too close to a reflective surface I start to notice some congestion in the mids that I have no tolerance for, but I set them up 5' from the sidewalls or absorb the first reflection point at the wall I have to have the speaker closer too and playback is natural. I notice most speakers in this price range deed similar care in setup.