Persona 3f vs B&W 802D2s

We are displaying dealers for the Paradigms and have a fairly good idea between the two brands.

Obvioulsy we are Paradigm biased but here goes:

1: The Personas have a much greater degree of coherency as the Persona uses the same exact material for the tweeter and the midrange, the 7 inch Pure Beryillium midrange driver is just extraordinary, it is fast, and uncolored and because the midrange and tweeter diapharams are made out of the same material you will never know that you are listening to two different drivers.

vs

B&W Diamond/alloy tweeter and graphite based/kevlar varient, ie two completely different materials, that do sound differently


2 Technology the PPA or Phase aligned lens on the midrange and tweeter help to refocus stray reflected sound waves off of the drivers, this technology is partly resonsible for the speakers holographic sound qualities

vs

B&W conventional driver technology, ie they don't offer such a holographic image

3:  Resolution, Beryilium drivers are incredibly stiff and very light so the response time in terms of snap and dynamics are incredible.

Here is how I would set them up

One make sure you have plenty of good clean power, tube preamp/solid state amp or a hybrid amp

Two: A warm dac or table

Three: Isoacoustics footers we have tested them and they are amazing, with  most speakers waiting on correct size for Paragidm so future tweek

Four: Wamer cable

Five: Add a JL Audio subwoofer to help round out the deep bass which the 3F has but not enough.this will make a huge improvement in warmth and slam. 

Hope that helps.

Dave and Troy
 
Audio Doctor NJ

Hey Contuzzi right on, that is why we say add a good sub which helps round out the sound and give some additional augmentation.

One of the other main differences between the 5F and the 3F is the larger cabinet size interacts in the room to produce a bigger overall sonic picture.

The 3F are indeed a bargin especailly considering the remakable driver technology. 

Setup correctly absoulutely amazing we would take the Person 3F over many much more expensive loudspeakers and when used with a sub you would have to spend a boat load more money to find something better even twice the price. 

The new Naim stuff is awesome we have the little Atom and it sound crazy good, the Nova replaces the Super Uniti which was pretty special in its day, the new Nova is supposed to come much closer to Naim's $13k Nac 272/250DR setup for $7k.

https://hometheaterreview.com/naim-uniti-atom-all-in-one-wireless-music-player-reviewed/?page=2

Please contact us for the most indepth info but here is what I would say

Anthem STR a nice integrated good sound, good punch the speakers deserve even better

Bryton way too dry, unless matched with a good tube preamp

Mcintosh warm lacks detail and resolution in my opinion way over priced for the level of sound quality

Anthem AVM 60 great pre/pro for the money not as good sounding as the Audio Control/Arcam stuff, 

If music is your passion then the best option would be to get a good 2 channel setup, take the optical digital out of the TV set the TV to output PCM digital and run that output into the digital input of a dac or an integrated

One of our favorites Naim Uniti Nova $7,000.00 or the new Micromega M150 or depending on volume the less expensive M100 at $4500

The Micromega is very tube like. with a wonderful rich midrange, Naim similar runs out of steam a bit earlier.

If you love rock add a good sub as indicated. 

Stay away from brighter cables AQ, Nordost, Wireworlds are very well balanced. 

Again hope that helps.

Best electronics we have ever used T+A audio from Germany, absolutely amazing sound, build quality and technology, a bit expensive but destination gear. 

Your wife is right on the looks the Personas are sexy without too much bling and now you can also get magnetic grills. 

If you set them up correctly they are astonishing.

If you are in our neck of the woods New Jersey?NY Metro we have them on display in our shop.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I would add that there are two distinct strategies you can imploy:

1: Preamp/processor and amp this will give you the ease of integrating TV and alloy for easy transition to surround sound Pros/Cons paying for stuff you are not using right now, and less resolution with lower quality dacs built into preamp/processor, depending on unit some have decent music streaming.

2: High end integrated amplifier which would sound best for music, and you can add a surround sound receiver if and when you decide to do Home Theater, many of today’s integrated amplifiers have a Home Theater bypass function so it is easy to do so. The only con with this approach is you would have to add the surround receiver later.

As I mentioned before it is easy to set up the TV to output audio to a high end integrated

Products like the Naim Uniti have wonderful music streaming app and have buiilt in Tidal and Spotify connect, Apt X Blue tooth. Airplay and Google Chromecast. So you can basically stream the world with a nearly unlimited supply fo music.

Another cool feature is Roon integration is coming to Naim, the Micromega shows up with Airplay. 

Another nice thing with the Naim sleek not to big and not to heavy, all you would need would be one set of speaker cables,

Also if you have a wife and family the Naim app is super easy to use and makes an excellent way to add whole house audio with products from the Naim Muso line, think Sonos but better.

The Micromega is similar to the Naim in some ways a bit better does not have a great app, but does have an excellent room correction feature that can help tame live rooms, which many Florida houses tend to have.

With both the Naim or Micromega products you would have money left over for a good set of speaker cables and a sub.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

We just set up a set of Persona 9H on the weekend and boy did they sound natural.

We compared them to the playback of a real Steinway and it was very close.

Talked with a guy from South Africa who is leaning towards the Personas.

Heard a big set of Magicos & Solution at the Capitol Audio Fest again no contest

You made a wise decison on the Personas the biggest issue is the flak that they continue to get when compared to many of the legacy brands.

You are going to love them.

Dave owner
Audio Doctor