Paradigm Persona series

What I find interesting in your post about the customer's in-home setup is the complete lack of discussion about speaker and listening positioning, the room itself, and acoustic treatments / furniture therein, all of which affect perceived sound quality much more than ~$25,000 worth of electronics and cables.

+1
The high end audio salesmen seem to rarely mention the most obvious, critical factors in a set up, especially if someone has a sonic issue.  Rather conveniently, instead they are happy to sell you a new cable, DAC, amp etc to "fix" the problem.   "Sound too bright?  We have an expensive cable for that!"

I had a chance to listen to the Persona 7F for a little while today, playing some audiophile-approved tracks.

Yeah, those speakers just leave me cold.   They certainly can sound clear especially in the high frequencies.  But overall I had the same impression as the last audition - they just don't sound timbrally organic or convincing to me.   Everything sounds "canned" or slightly glazed, and when I close my eyes there are all sorts of "clear/clean" sounding acoustic objects presented to me, guitar, drums, percussion, etc.  But they have the same grayish tonal "color" and my mind has to really work to untangle one instrument timbrally from the other.

A competent speaker, and I understand anyone else enjoying it, but my subjective reaction is just..."meh."

twoleftears,
*bro fist*

Yes I know audiotroy. As I said, I disagree. I’ve heard the Persona’s in 4 different set ups now, all different gear, and a speaker’s "personality" does not radically change (unless you put some incredibly colored tube amp on it or something).


They are really excellent speakers. But this is a thread in which to discuss them, and if I have further encounters or thoughts, I post them.  If you think for some strange reason I’m posting too many comments on them, compare the number of your posts continually extolling your opinion, vs my meager contribution ;-)


And btw I don’t just like "colored" speakers (and the Persona’s certainly aren’t the most neutral measuring speakers out there - that top end peak!). I also love the Joseph Audio speakers which, especially the Pulsar, measure more neutral than the Persona floor standing speakers.


I was a fan of Dunlavy, again measured very neutral. I also own Waveform speakers (very neutral), Thiel, even the Harbeth SuperHL5 plus I owned and enjoyed, and despite some like to disparage their cabinet design, JA said of the measurements: "measured performance is beyond reproach." And an Aussie mag stated they had the most evenly balanced frequency range from bottom to top than they’d ever measured. And to me even those made instruments and voices sound significantly more natural to me. (Again, I don’t make any claim that anyone else should feel the same).


And of course I’ve heard a great many other speakers that measure everywhere from colored to extremely neutral. So I have a pretty good yardstick.


It’s ok if someone doesn’t fall in love with the Persona’s. It really is :-)

david_ten

I'm just fascinated with speakers.   When the opportunity arises to listen to a high end speaker, I take it, even if I've heard it before.

I'd been seriously considering the Persona's early on, with a somewhat positive first encounter (though with caveats), so I gave them another audition not long ago and it gave me a better handle on my feelings about them.   Though I noticed things in the last audition - e.g. about the tone - that didn't stick out the first time.  This was another opportunity to see how they sound in a different set up, powered with different amps etc, as another data point.  It solidified some of my impressions, and since this is the Paradigm Persona thread, and we audiophiles like to talk about our speaker experiences, I'll report mine in a thread like this.

And nothing I've said - zero! - implies my experience is "superior or primary" to anyone else's.  In fact I have been careful to say it's clearly my own subjective reaction.  The speakers leave ME cold, and TO MY ears they sounded X.   I clearly stipulated this was my SUBJECTIVE reaction, rather than just declaring some objective condemnation, like a number of audiophiles tend to do.    I said, as I've said before about the Persona series, I understand why  OTHER PEOPLE like them.   So I have no idea why you are imagining otherwise.