Paradigm Personas anyone heard them

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.

I have loved Paradigm for 20 years (being Canadian its a given....) and for the last 8 years have had the privilege of owning S8v2s.  They are exemplary speakers at a real world price.  Moreover, as audiotroy points out, Paradigm is a big company and economy of scale is such they can do things others cannot; moreover, it also keeps the price down.  They are also one of the few whom totally design and manufacture everything about their speakers, which gives the company greater flexibility in design and execution.  All being said, the 9H's give me concern.

Being the top model it obviously is going to be the best, but the fact it is active in the bass worries me.  At the price point it is targeted for, it is going to be a given the buyer will have "commensurate gear" to accommodate the speaker.  And it is a given the amplifiers are going to be "good".  Essentially, with the 9H, you are being told to buy them plus the Anthem class D amps that power the bass speakers (Anthem is Paradigm's sister company).  There are going to be some whom take issue with that, especially those whom are steadfast Class A fans or those whom prefer more robust amps of tube origin.  I think had the OPTION of powered or not would of been better, and the non-powered version would of been cheaper.  Moreover, adding electronics causes more points to go wrong down the road......you don't see this with Magico, Rockport et al.  It remains to be seen but on an intuitive level, if the powered bass section were ideal, the aforementioned coompanies would be doing it.  Only subs get a powered option since the application of class D amps are ideal on this.  But on a $35K speaker?  Paradigm is not supposed to be competing with DefTech.  This line is suppossed to be far above it.


Granted,  I suspect I love a pair, but most likely the 7Fs since I already have 2 good JL Audio subs.  Can't wait to hear them.