Paradigm Persona B Loudspeakers Professional Review

Stereo 5 you asked so here is our reply. 

We personally know several major reviewers, and to say that just because someone is a reviewer they A: Know what good sound is or B: They know how to setup a system or C: They have at that particular momment the right matching gear is a highly charged topic.

The difference between a dealer and a reviewer is, or can be the sheer range of gear at our disposal that we can experiement with.

So for example we have one sound room with 54 components, that includes starter amps for $1,000.00 Rega, Nuprime, NAD, etc

multiple Dacs from Nuprime, NAD, Mytek, T+A, Aqua, Naim to name a few

multiple Electronics lines from Naim, Micromega, Anthem, Synthesis, Unison, Electrocompanient, Parasound and CJ, Manly, etc.

So we can play with many different combinations.

An interesting demo occured last week, we got a call from a client with B&W 804D3 looking for a new amp, mentioned Vincent which we used to carry and was very good, and we told him we don't have a Vincent on the floor but when you factor in a good Dac better than the starter internal Dac of the 237 you would be at a $3k-4k price range, so why don't you listen to the Micromega M100 a $4,500 amp/dac/streamer which is a fantastic piece.

We don't sell B&W and so we setup the Personas 3F and to demonstrate the difference we started with the Anthem STR integrated, a $4,500.00 integrated, now we like the piece, but in our tests it always sound clean, with good bass a nice soundstage but a bit dry. 

Guess what customer heard the same thing when we compared the STR to the identically priced Micromega M100 which is also a class A/B amp with Dac, the difference in the sound of the speakers was very audible. The Micromega was richer in the midrange, a bit more delicate in the top and has a warmer deeper bass over the STR.

Long story short the same speakers sounded totally different.

The client then mentioned his love of tubes, and we played the Synthesis A 100T a $7,500 tube integrated with an excellent built in dac and boom similar persepective to the Micomega with the huge soundstage width and deepth of tubes. The customer was hooked, and is not contemplating the purchase of the Synthesis.

It is one of the things we preach, it is system matching, a speaker like the Persona or the Elac Adantes, they require somewhere to have components that inject warmth into the sound, so you may need a rich sounding dac or one with tubes or wamer solid state brands like Naim.

So one must be cognisant that when you are demoing any one component in reality you are experiencing that entire chain and unless you play with the particular product and can see that products strengths and are then committed to bring out that products strengths and ammeliorating that products weakness then and only then can you get the sound that you are looking for. 

This is also why many audiophiles like speakers which are voiced warmer, ie "musically"  the warmer voicing of a Harbeth or Vandersteen or some of the newer Wilsons means you are less likely  to produce a pairing which sounds brighther and harsher, these types of speakers can be easier to get right.

We recently spent time with the Focal Sopras and they were way warmer then the older Focals, they did not have as a defined soundstage as the Personas nor did they have the same unbelievable clarity, but in many ways it was a similar sound to the Persona and you can see how well the new Focal series is selling when everyone loves them.  This is a delibrate choice in voicing. The Personas were designed to have 0 Personality by themselves, the entire marketing of the Persona series makes that evidently clear, the speaker is supposed to take on the "persona" of the music and matching gear.

The same issues that someone would have with a speaker like this is no difference than a Radiho, or any other very high resolution speaker like a B&W Diamond series as well, you must carefully find the matching components or you will not be moved by the sound and if you are unwilling to view this match as a journey you will never be satisfied with what a product with this kind of resolution can accheive when the pairing is correct. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Dear Ricred1, the issue with your demo might have been the demo setup, with that being said, the Personas are amazing loudspeakers if you value what they do which is creating a holographic soundstage, overall resolution and tight deep bass they are hard to beat especially for the price.

We told you that the Monitors in some ways are better, which is image size and overall impact, the larger physical size of your speakers makes for a big powerful sounding speaker.

It all comes down to what specific virtues you  value most image size, vs a smaller more focused yet still big sounding loudspeaker with a greater amount of overall clarity which is why we told you to keep your loudspeakers.

If you visit us and listen to our Persona 9H setup I think you will see the merits of what this design brings to the table vs many other similarly priced loudspeakers, with the voicing of the Personas they are very equipment setup critical, not more so then other similar high resoloution  loudspeakers but for them to really shine you  have to really have the right set of gear, or the speakers will not sound anywhere near what they can sound like when everything is right with them.


What equipment was on them when you heard them and how big was the room?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

You may have a far better setup.

What electronics, source, and cables were they using?

Mzkmxcv

Excuse me dude are you a loudspeaker designer/engineer?

I looked at the same plots you looked at and did not see many of the issues you mentioned. As per being overpriced compared to what?

Please mention a single loudspeaker on the market that uses a pure Beryillium midrange driver? Can you find a single loudspeaker that is under $40k that has a Beryillium midrange driver, even Focal, has not figured out how to make such a driver, and you have one here in a $7k set of speakers.

Aside from the remarkable clarity of the Beryllium midrange you have a 100% coherent sound because you have exactly the same material for both the woofer and the tweeter. This is a huge advantage.

Paradigm has a very large and talented engineering staff that spent $4 million dollars developing all the technologies present in this line of loudspeakers do you not think that they have the test gear to make accurate measurements?

Most home measurements are not the same as what you would get in a lab due to the wildly unpredicable effects of furniture and room construction which is why lab measurements are delivered by the manufacturer. If you have a sparse room without a lot of damping you may also get a high frequency rise, which is why lab measurements in an anchoic chamber are much more accurate.

As per value the Personas have been compared to much more expensive loudspeakers and are considered a value for the sheer amount and calibre of their engineering.

Last point any very high resolution loudspeaker may sound bright if the equipment or room is not working well with them.

Lastely we have sold and setup many pairs of these loudspeakers in clients homes and they sound fantastic.

One of our clients has the 9H with the remarkable T+A electronics and he plays a Steinway, we played the same recording on the speakers and it was very similar.

Dave and Troy, Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

Mzkmcx,

You miss many of the points that are raised. The NRC measurements are not necessarily the same as the response that Paradigm engineered into the speakers. Unless you talk to the developement engineers you have no idea of what kind of response that they were striving for when used in a real room.

Also you can see that the on axis response is different than the off axis ones, perhaps that is why we find the speakers to work well with toe in. 

Paradigm has their own Anchoic chamber and again spent $4 million dollars developing these speakers, so do you honestly think that  Paradigm doesn't know what they are doing and a tiny gnat of a company that nearly no ones knows about has managed to out engineer one of the largest speaker manufacturers in North America?

There is no compromise in the Beryillium midrange drivers, Paradigm can afford to develop one and it is a superior to a Ceramic one. We have heard many speakers with Ceramic midrange drivers and invariably that have a somewhat artifical quality in the midrange. 

A set of Persona B with a good subwoofer willl challange a lot of true reference speakers, which is their value. 

As per holding their own vs Kef, we have the Ref 1 and in many ways the Persona B have an even more natural midrange. 

As per your last comment: Not trying to sound like a prick, but I just don’t like it when people spend a lot of money and don’t get the best for the money (like buying a car made by GM instead of an Asian or German one).

Please tell the forum in what way is a GM Cadillac or a Corvette not a remarkable performer for the money, The brand new Corvette is heads and shoulders in build quality vs their older models.  The CTS models have many fans even compared to Mercedes and BMW. 

Our Persona 9H are remarkable loudspeakers that can challange any expensive reference speaker, many reviewers have gone on the record to extoll just how remarkable the new Persona series is even compared to the best reference loudspeakers.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ