Paradigm Persona series


I'm beginning to poke around and gather opinions and information about a "super speaker" to replace my aging Thiel 2.4s.  I like the idea of bass dsp room correction and I am a bit of a point source type imaging nut (thus the Thiels).  So among other choices I've been looking at the Paradigm Persona series specifically the powered 9H with room correction for the bass.  However I'm skeptical of the "lenses" i.e. pierced metal covers on the midrange and tweeter specifically because of Paradigm's claim that such screens "screen out" "out of phase" musical information.  The technology in the design seems superlative but I just can't get past the claim re out of phase information and the midrange and tweeter covers.  What could possibly be the science behind this claim?  It just seems like its putting a halloween moustache on the mona lisa given the fact that the company is generally a technology driven company.
pwhinson

Showing 4 responses by twoleftears

You've got to start with the practical fact that the drivers are beryllium, and therefore there's got to be something in front of them that in theory not even the tiniest of pinkie fingers can fit through.  What that something is, and how it's designed, and whether it really has a positive acoustic effect, or the company has to justify it somehow---that's far beyond my ken.

The 40.2's sounded very, very good with CJ preamp and amp at CAF.

The Vinnie Rossi preamp+monoblock combo is by all accounts very good (and should be, at its price), so I'm sure this is right.

I disagree.  In the concert hall I've never heard massed violins playing fortissimo sound shrill.
But I do hear that on a number of recordings and through a number of speakers.
Early DGG digital recordings are particularly guilty of this.  I've never found a metal domed tweeter that completely avoided this--the beryllium that Salk uses came close, the different one used by Fritz even closer.
Needless to say, recording+speaker effects can be cumultative.
Long live soft domes!
@prof  Excellent description!  Aligns exactly with what I heard/how I felt when auditioning the 5's.
Also, though to a lesser extent, applicable to my impression of the Dynaudio Contour 60.