Persona 9h vs S3 mk 2

Contuzzi, their is no doubt in our minds that the Persona 3f is the better value, for one brief shining momment the Me1 was lowered to $10k at that price the speaker was a great deal.

We have heard the Me 1 sounding very good, with a slightly richer midrange response than the 3F.  They still sound more like a monitor on a stand and for $5k less the 3F is just so hard to beat, for $5k you can get yourself a great dac or be half way to a great sounding intergrated amplifier. 

We do think that the ME 1 for a person with a very small room who wants a stand mounted speaker is one of the best of its kinds. 

The reality as we see it is that if you dial in the 3f it is one remarkable loudspeaker that sounds more like a $20k loudspeaker than a $10k one. 

We setup our Persona 3F on a setup of Naim Separates for $13k with the Paradigm SW 1000 a compact subwoofer from Paradigm and the sound was just remarkable and the entire system was more affordable then many reference systems we have heard that were two to three times the price.

The way we see it is that the 3f if used with the right combination of gear does so many things extremely well: a huge soundstage, great image float, superb detail, very tight deep bass response for its price point it is very hard to beat.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

The TAD ME1 is not as detailed as the 3F but rather close in that department. The ME1 maybe better for longer listening sessions. I know with the Luxman system + TAD ME1 demo I was totally satisfied with the sound and wanted to listen all day. I like the TAD ME1 more than the Magico A3 that I liked a lot at one point.

My assumption is that the 3F will have a bit more bass and can play in a small room. I will home demo this with the Luxman amp to see if that is true in my room. I also think that the coherence of the tweeter and mid on the 3F is a little better (one voice). A lot of folks have said to me that I would not like the 3F for long term listening sessions, I think they are wrong and my home demo will clear this up. A lot of folks like a softer top end and not like Persona’s, I am not one of them.

I want to make the 3F work in my small office because I want a floor stander but the ME1 is great and I can live with that speaker if the 3F will not work. I decided I did not want to introduce DSP into my sound chain so I only am relying on acoustic treatments. I went the non-DSP route after I fell for the all Luxman system demo. So I am buying electronics before the speaker. Maybe the Mola Mola pre/dac to lessen the component count.

That $15k - $10K - $15K oscillation in the TAD ME1 price was rather disappointing, I now feel a bit like you are getting less speaker for the price. The Persona 3F price seems to me like you get more for the price compared to some other floor standers I have demoed.

Main issue is my room.

I re-read this thread and there was a comment that said that the Persona 9H would work in ALMOST any room. So I went to google to see some photos of the 9H. This following photo seems close to my room size.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=7709C349CA7C92913622C1DE815D07AE186519BC&...

Would the 9H work in a very small 12’x11’x9’ room? I do not play too loud in this room and the speakers would eventually move to a bigger room (in 3 years).

There will be several people who have likely nevermind heard the personas, our dealers who don’t carry paradigm and want to down talk them... but there is literally no speaker on the market that will achieve such high performance TRULY FULL RANGE sound in a small to medium sized room like the 9H.
I now have two more friends who have gotten 9H’s and their rooms are both polar opposites. One is huge with a two story vaulted ceiling, one is a basement with 7ft ceilings. In both rooms the bass is astonishing. Extremely lean and tight, almost spookishly so. The skin on drums, etc is just so organic it’s just incredible.

And the best part is you get to start with lightning fast lean bass, yet if you want more, you can just raise the room gain a tiny bit and get a little more of the outstandingly flat non boomy room corrected bass.  I think the fact that the speakers have FOUR 8” woofers that are all quite a bit apart helps couple them to the room differently (as is the reason multiple subs are key) and you end up with super flat bass response even without the correction.  The ARC just takes things to a completely different level.

Can not recommend them enough.

Contuzzi, have to agree with you here. Especially in terms of bass response in adverse rooms you are right on the money!

Audio Doctor showcased the Persona 9H at the New York audio show in 2016 right after they came out. This was one of the first public showings of the speakers.

We were not in a ball room or a giant demo room just a regularly sized hotel room, the entire room from side to side was probably about 14 feet wide with the length of the room perhaps being 16-18 feet. We had the speakers very close to the side walls, toed in signficantly with three rows of seating. The speakers were setup on the long wall.

The local rep and Paradigms sales manager ran the Anthem Room correction in multiple locations. The dip in the bass response was dramatic from the before no room correction vs the post room correction plot. The ARC function allowed the bass to be deep and tight and not to over load such a small room.

The sound for a big system in a small room was breathtaking and was a perfect example to showcase how much a difference that the Anthem Room Correction software was creating a listenable tight tuneful bass reponse in a room that should have been boomy and bloated with a bass response that would dominate over the high and mids.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/features/show-reports-film-festivals-concerts/new-york-audio-show-2016/

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/pcb.1322387171167826/1322378621168681/?type=3&theat...

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers