Paradigm Personas anyone heard them


No reviews on these yet that I can find. Curious if anyone has heard them and what were your impressions. Also any comparisons to the outgoing signature series?
thanks
mofojo
"When you have exactly the same material for the tweeter and midrange the speaker sounds 100% coherent, there is no issue in getting the drivers to blend."

I’m not a speaker designer nor an engineer by any stretch, but there’d seem to still be several issues left to deal with, in addition to driver material, that would determine how coherent individual drivers and/or a speaker sounds. You’re also talking pretty tough about outperforming some pretty good speaker manufacturers.  Sound like interesting speakers though.
Audiotroy, Out of curiousity what amplifiers did you try out with the new Paradigms?  Any particular equipment that sounded better than the others?   I'd like to hear the 7F.
thanks

Our setup at the New York audio show was with the superlative T+A gear,

at the shop we have been playing the 3F and B with all sorts of gear, the Naim amps sound wonderful, so does the T+A Dac 8 amp 8 combo, the Unison Research does a great job as well. 

They seem to reflect perfectly whatever you put through them.

The image size is quite spooky extremely holographic, the clarity is astonishing the 3f's bass is rather extraordinary especially for the size of the speakers. 

In terms of design, yes a good crossover is also crucial, you guys have to remember that Paradigm is one of the world's largest speaker manufacturers their factory is 250,000 sq. feet, the 200 ton press needed to bond the panels of the Persona costs hundred of thousands of dollars and Paradigm has the financial resources to invest several million dollars in developing a very sophisticated line of speakers with completely proprietary in house made drivers.

Very few of the world's top loudspeaker brands have the technical skill or funds to do this, you can pretty much count them on one hand: B&W, Focal, Magico, Rockport, Dynaudio, ATC, YG, KEF, come to mind.

When you then breakdown that list into who can make really high tech drivers with truly exotic construction and materials, you get B&W, Magico, Focal, Rockport. 

With Persona Paradigm has clearly arrived with speakers that can be considered the best in the world. 
FWIW,

I have heard the Persona 3F and I was blown away. First off, I thought they looked hideous in photos and was not excited about that aspect of them at all. However, when I saw them in person (the steel gray or whatever, which looks like a slight blue gray), I was stunned. Completely gorgeous and elegant looking. The phase aligning grilles on the tweeter and mid look like jewelry in person. They look expensive.

Anyway, I was expecting to not like the sound in some way, or at least be turned off completely by some aspect of the sound. I never have thought of Paradigm as "high end" at all. The Signature series have always greatly disappointed me every time I heard them, and to be honest, made me wonder if Paradigm really understood good sound when designing higher priced stuff (their low end monitor series are great).

To say that I was impressed would be an under statement. I want a pair now. I think Paradigm is making a huge mistake showing off those big 9F’s at all the shows, because that’s a really high price point for most people, and it was astonishing how good (and full range sounding in a modestly sized common room) the 3F sounded for "only" 10 grand. I think and hope Paradigm will have great success with this line. So taken back by how much I liked them.

If I had to sum up the sound in some simplified way -- I’d say they sound most like Focal Sopra/Utopia, Magico... and less like Dynaudio/Sonus Faber/Revel/Vienna etc.

VERY open and lively without ever being harsh.

Ok I’ll stop ranting -- just wanted to chime in with my enthusiasm. Take this product seriously. :)
Thank you for posting your response, I will say the better the setup the better they perform!  I am curious what you heard them on? 

We are running the 3F on a Naim 272 preamp and 250Dr amp and the sound is glorious!

Both myself and Dave, are blown away by the speakers, to say the 3F is a good value is an understatement. 

I would be willing to bet that if you put a $20k price tag on these you could get that much for them, I think these will be the speaker that will put Paradigm on the map in terms of performance to price!

At the Audio Doctor show room we have the 3F floor stander, the B bookshelf and the 9H and all three are impressive in their own right. 

I would say that unless someone has to have a bookshelf speaker the 3F is the way to go. 

I am sure that the 5 and 7 floor standers are going to be contenders in their price points for those folks with larger rooms and who are craving an even larger sound stage and more bass. 

If anyone is in our neck of the woods give us a ring and ask for Dave who is in the shop most of the time, I am there on some weekends and you will be in for a treat.