Paradigm Persona series

Many of us are in the Most camp.  You can't fix broken, but many chase their tails trying. I'm making a point and not saying that the speakers are broken.  Not by any means. Many folks value what they do.  Many of us have the same issues of coherency and being too bright.  This is why they are successful.  

I've heard the same speaker(9H) in multiple sets ups, with top gear of different companies of both SS and tube and come away with the same issues for my ears.  I'm blessed that I have friends I can go to stores with or I'd never physically be able to, but I do when I feel up to it.  

If you need such specific details to make something listenable, then the basic concept it broken IMHO.  I've heard Rockport Lyra's in a few systems over the last year.  totally different size rooms. One was a poor set up and another had way too many things going on.  The cabling was inexpensive to uber expensive.  One had a great reel set up (oh man....just oh man) and one was vinyl.  One had vinyl, digital and a rebuilt Studer Revox.  That was a holy cow system.   

The bottom line is that the speakers had the exact same basic sound.  The base sound was outstanding in so many ways and the differences went from there.  I agree that most dealers show rooms are not the best sounding.  many reasons for this and some dedicated rooms have too much dampening as they are trying to sell the stuff, lol.  I have a local high end dealer who has a terrible 50hz vibration and it hurts the sound terribly, but his Wilson Alexa mk2's sound like any other Alexa I've heard in other's homes or stores.  

Many folks love the Paradigm's, but honestly, they are one of the most polarizing speakers on the market.  The threads on any board point that out and I even own a pair of older Paradigm's, lol.

Kost 

It all depends on setup. Just because the "factory rep" set them up doesn't mean a lot.  

The rep may or may not know the store's gear, and may have setup a system that may or may not have worked for the speakers or for your tastes for any number of reasons. 

Then you have the other variables which is the room's  acoustics and the collection of gear that they have to work with. 

The Persona are incredible speakers if you set them up correctly, one of the most important issues is system tuning. The Personas have a very neutral tonal balance, therefore, they tend to need warmer electronics to not sound sterile.

So perhaps the Personas you heard you might have really liked setup totally differently or perhaps not. 

We have found that the Personas  respond very favorably with Isoacoustics Gaia footers, add some of the Furutech NCF boosters to your system and  just by adding those two items your tonal balance will be a bit on the fuller side.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I still don't understand how you can use a cable to take something away from any speaker and not lose information.  Honest question and it goes for anything.  I am very surprised that if that specific cable needs to be used with the Paradigm in order to tame their high end.  I've never seen them offered at any of their stores I've been to and that's many.  

If the Personas are matched with Cerious Technologies speaker cables you will get a glorious midrange and delicate highs. All the brightness will disappear.
The Personas take 300 hrs of break in. I highly doubt any dealer has them even broken in properly. Beryllium midranges are brutally honest and you need matching electronics and cabling. Tubes somewhere in the chain sure help.
This is a great speaker but needs time and patience to get the best out of them.  

Folks, all speakers have a house sound.  That's due to the compromise that the designer makes.  This is why we either like or dislike specific brands.  I do try to go in with an open mind when any company changes a design practice.  I couldn't listen to Wilson's until Darrel took over and started to use a soft dome tweeter.  Uber dynamic and easier to listen to.  I could easily own pair now, but personally feel they are not detailed enough for my tastes and I don't get the emotion that I hear out of other speakers (including other's not named Vandersteen, lol).  

If you like Paradigm, then you will like these new speakers.  They are very well extended on top, so system matching is more crucial than other speakers (IMHO).  They are just too bright for my ears (as well as many folks I've spoken with) no matter what room they are in.  As I have stated, I've heard them many times in many situations.  That includes a friends house where the room sounds great.  Not overly damped as many are and his electronics are top notch tubes (AR ref gear).  It's the best I've heard them sound, but still just not my cup of tea. His either as he returned them adn is still looking.

That's not a cut at all. It's just that they have a house sound that is Paradigm's.  As I ahvce stated, I own an older pair still.  My daughter uses them for her parties at college (as I had their former top sub with them).  There are a ton of choices in the 35k and under range and of all varieties.  Now, more than ever, it's important to audition in stores and get advice from folks who actually match speakers to various electronics and cables.  System matching is as critical as ever.  There is a market for most gear (some stuff just universally sucks).

I have owned Paradigms practically since the company was founded in 1982.
d2 I agree with you that Paradigm's did  not have the  reputation of being "high end" .Neither were PSB ,Energy and other excellent Canadian speakers.
That's what I liked about them.Most of their speakers to me sounded pretty close to other  very $$$ "high end" speakers.

Had a pair of Studio reference 100s in 2000 which to me sounded much better than some of the "sterile" high end British boxes back then.

Just bought a set of Prestige 85fs and they too sound great.
Paying over $15 grand for speakers,well I just won't budget that high for 'em.not even for Paradigm....

Agreed, but they have usually been a quarter of the cost of the persona series.

They have been making the Signature series for about 15 years. Very well built great sounding speakers IMO. 

personally i am a bit jaded with paradigm for jumping into high end so hard, so quickly. the prestige series was already significantly more expensive than anything they ever did beforehand, now we got the persona series... i never considered the paradigm brand synonymous with ultra high end, guess theyve made it to the big leagues now.

I have now had the Persona 5Fs for 3 mos and after a cable loom change and some fantastic tuning footers from Combak Harmonix I can say these speakers are worth heavy consideration.
They are replacing  a set of Magico S3. The Magico's weren't  bad but just got a little boring after the year I had them. I wanted something a little more lively. 
The Audience Au24Sx cable loom  was a great match for the Magico's but not so much for the Persons. I went with Cerious Technologies Matrix line of IC and Speaker cables. Bob even made me custom jumpers so all was good.
All the upper midrange glare was gone and after the loom was broke in for about 3 weeks the Personas really blossomed.  But when they really showed off their best in class midrange was when adding the tuning bases under the spikes of the Persona's. Vocals have unbelievable texture, Front to back layering of the players are some of the best I have heard anywhere.  You can follow the piano players fingers down the piano in front of you. Notes just float away with fantastic decay. Bob's speakers wires are friggin awesome!!.
I have heard the Personas at Dealers and I would not buy them either.   
They need to be synergized in your room, for your tastes.  
I take professional reviews with a grain of salt but these guys have had the speakers usually for a couple of months and can tweak them. All the reviews are very positive.
I have always considered Paradigm a solid HT speaker and not much more.  The Persona's have changed all that.!!
Aurender A10> Micro Zotl 2.0s> Hot Rodded  Odyssey Kismets Monos> 5fs , Stillpoints under everything. 

At this price range and since you value dsp correction you have to check out Legacy Focus XD and Legacy Aeris with Wavelet. They check all your boxes , active amplification, correction across the audio band with tailored parameters for your speaker at factory. And they have been doing this longer than Paradigm, as far as I know. The purchase comes with in-house setup.

I am a long time Paradigm Studo 40v3 owner. I was really impressed by Legacy at RMAF this year. I listened to many speakers around 20K and more. Quite a value but not a compromised sound at all. You can easily spend way more and get less.

I've only heard the 3f's from that line with an Anthem front end and I expected them to be bright, even had dealer play diana schuur and they were smooth, but regardless what people say about speaker break in he/dealer said they sounded pretty harsh for a good week. I thought the Kanta'2 imaged better at the same price though I wouldn't say either speaker was better.

I too an a Vandy guy. I never was until I spent time with all the other speakers out there in my range and found them to be the best compromise.  Every speaker is a compromise and you either like or don't like what is compromised.  

The Vandy is similar in design to the old Thiel in that it's time and phase correct.  No smearing and tons of micro and macro detail.  Paired with a zero feedback design amp, it can be magical.  I also have found that in MY room, it's been the best by far as I have a difficult room.  I have spoken to Richard V about how he designs them and it's in a real world environment.  No special chambers etc...  That's probably why it's been the best sounding in my room.

I personally have heard the Paradigm's in many venues and never liked them.  Just not my cup of tea.  I found their highs to be tipped up bit and that's fatiguing to me (maybe not to others).  I also found them to lack coherency to MY ears.  Again, there are different speakers for all our ears.  This is why going to listen is so important.  Many designers will produce these ultra dynamic speakers as they will stand out in a store, but they often lack the micro and macro details that give you the emotion in a song.  Again, just my opinion.

If you search my previous responses to Paradigm Personas I’d caution against them as a multi Paradigm customer and a brief experience with their Persona flagship at my familiar Paradigm retailer.

After living with my Avalon Acoustics Eidolons, original Thiel and Vandersteen are designs that simply sound right to me. I was able to compare my Paradigm Studio 100 v2s, a demo pair of S8s and the Eidolons at home at the same time. Both my wife and Son heard the striking difference within the first few minutes.

As mentioned in those previous responses the Personas are a huge Paradigm improvement yet they still lacked the cohesive rightness your Thiels may offer. At their price you should be able to audition them at home. Match the bass extension to your Thiels and you’ll hear the difference for yourself.

I’ve used my two subwoofers with the Avalons in three different homes and they never loaded those rooms very well located next to the speakers.

You should expect an experienced dealer response here soon.

Have a pair of the 9H's driven by Pass XA30.8 amp. Very clean sound, bass is simply phenomenal, and the amp will drive them to extremely loud levels without moving the meter. Well worth an audition. 

I have heard the Persona 5f.   Very clear and coherent sounding, whatever the technology it employs.  Other threads have described the series at some length.

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.