April 2017 review of the Paradigm Persona 9H A home run for Paradigm!


I have been following all the contested threads about the new Paradigm Persona line of speakers and it seems that many people are having difficulties in believing that Paradigm, a company well respected for value loudspeakers could produce a product that can rival the best exotic loudspeakers on the market.

The review came out today in the Absolute Sound April 2017 issue and what my ears have told me is true, is true. 
John Atkinson, compared the Pardigm 9H $35k to the Magico S7MK 2 $58k and found that Personas to be in the same class as these highly thought of prestigious loudspeakers. I think I read on one  of the threads that a Magico owner was saying that wasn't possible!

I am not an expert, on loudspeakers, I do know what sounds real to me, and when I heard these speakers my jaw hit the floor. Stunning realism. I could almost reach out and touch the Beatles, and Miles Davis. Huge sound stage, totally transparent, and smooth, with dynamite bass. 

At this point I am torn between the Legacy Audio Signatures and The Paradigm Persona 3F which shares the same driver technology of the 9H but costs $10k, I am lucky to be working with a dealer that represents both of these awesome lines of loudspeakers. 

It seems to me that many audiophiles need to open their minds and stop being so brand loyal to the point of obsession,  and start looking at the sound, and only the sound. I know for me as a professional photographer, I have gone back and forth between Canon and Nikons, and I love them both but am wedded to neither. Why in the audio world do people have such furvor over what they buy with the belief that their product and only their product is the best? In the camera world it seems much more fluid with people changing camera brands without ever starting a written riot if someone dares to bring up another brand or question their choice. 



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Showing 8 responses by audiotroy

Ctsooner, I didn't say it isn't possible to make a good speaker using a first order slope, I said many engineers won't due to the multitude of problems inherent in a first order design as per expensive, it is is also expensive and in some ways more to build a steeper slope as you will need to spend more money on a more elaborate crossover with more elements. 

Any good engineer will work on phase related issues by tweaking their crossover slopes and by building in compensation networks, so you can electrically delay the summed output of the drivers to create a wave launch which will be close to being in perfect phase even by using a steeper slopes, and as I mentioned there has been a ton of great speakers that are not time and phase aligned or are time aligned but not phase aligned. So great sound is much more than just building a time and phase aligned design.

Our camp, of Paradigm Personas lovers,  including Tpinto, which is now an owner of these magnificent speakers,  is trying to raise awareness of how fantastic these speakers are and you said you heard them before, but not at our shop, so you may have a different opinion when you hear them at our shop. It took us weeks to get them sounding right, not to mention having the right matching equipment, I have no idea where you heard them and the competency of that store's setup, so why don't you come here and judge for yourself?

When Dave heard them at their first North American tour, he did not like them, either.  We discussed this matter at length, our choice to bring them in was that he felt they had potential to sound good,  this particular dealer only had mid priced electronics and cables, and did not clearly have the correct gear to present the speakers properly.

In all of my posts, I never said that the speakers weren't anything other then a contender and may do things as well or in some ways better than the other sacred cow brands. 

 When I related our experience in actually having some very exotic and expensive brands and products in comparison to the Personas's the thread broke up in a tit for tat between myself and another member on the Wilson forum who is not getting that this is how we test and how we know in our experience just how good the Personas are did we test them vs everything no but we have been around the block. 

What I was trying to do, was not to hijack that thread but to point out to the OP that there was an alternative that he should check out, that he might like and would work well in his room and cost less than an Alexia. 

So that is "selling" it seems to me that is about helping a guy to consider an option he wasn't thinking about. The only way that would have been selling if the poster was in our territory and visited our shop and then purchased a pair from us. I don't think that really happens much here as this is a big country, and Paradigm has dealers in the other states. 

By that same token all of you Vandy guys should have also chimed in on that same post, and let that man also know that he should consider the Vandy 5A as they also have room eq  and boundary compensation,and they cost the same as the Sashas.

It may be their size and shape that made the Vandys not desirable to the guy who bought the Sashas or it could be the sound or a zillion other reasons.

The fact are in and I agree with Tpinto, the new Persona Line represents some incredible engineering at affordable price points and should be auditioned by anyone looking at high performance speakers.

I know of no other brand to offer such advanced driver technology for a set of speakers which start at $7k a pair and that is just one of the reasons the Paradigms should be a must audition product, whether or not someone likes them better than brand x is up to the listener. 


My invitation stands if you want to meet me, our new friends Kuppe and Fixbin1, and Dave you are more then welcome and come to the shop and actually hear our setups, and to judge for yourself. 

Who knows you might actually like what you hear. 

As per selling on Ctstooner, I see your name everywhere clearly proselytizing the merits of Vandersteen and Ayre, either way you could be considered in the same way zealotry is selling, I would also think that from anyone seeing your posts.

You will also note that in any of my posts I have made it clear that I don't think Paradigms, ATC, or any other of the many lines of products the store sells are better, than any other brand, I said we prefer them and they may compete and in some ways may be better than brand X, while you clearly seem to state that like the great Peter Montecreif, all else is boat anchors, meaning that only Vandersteens are accurate and musical in in some way is a better speaker than brand X, Vandersteens,  are very fine speakers, some people love them and purchase them , while many other people  do not, they are not better than any other brand of speaker you may think so and that is your reality and your choice, the entire industry is made up of people who embrace Focal, Wilson, Magico, Monitor Audio, Spendor, and many other brands there are over 300 brands of speakers out there.






We should all be free to express our opinions

I think the point of the thread was to let people know that the review on the Persona's has validated what many people who have heard these speakers setup correctly already know. Paradigm has arrived in the uber speaker club and should be considered by anyone shopping for great speakers. 

As per a time and phase aligned speaker being the only right speaker is poppy cock, There are many engineers that will not build first order crossovers due to the intrinsic demands that they make on the drivers employing overlapping frequencies, and the power handling  demands placed on the drivers which then limit dynamics and causing greater distortion at higher spls, due to the greater bandwidth necessitated by these designs causing increased  heating of the voice coils  which adds distortion,  add lobbing effects lat the pass band,  and these kinds of designs also have serious trade offs to offset the advantages in just preserving time coherency. 

However, not all listeners are sensitive to time related effects and a rooms interaction with a set of speakers in terms of setting overall diffraction and reverberation times, usually create more adverse time related distortions than if  a speaker  better tracks a microphone because the wave launch of the drivers is all in phase, vs not being in phase in the first place.

In the annuls of audio you have had great speakers with all different types of crossover designs:

The legendary JSE infinite slope, the famous Spica TC 50 which combined a first order and fourth order crossover slope, The Infinity IRS, The Infinity RS 1B whiich employed I think third order and second order slopes. the Quad ESL, and ESL 63, The Wilson Watt Puppy, and many, many more. 


The reviewer is the editor in chief. The review was an unquestioned rave and the speakers the 9H was compared to were the almost twice the price Magicos and the Legacy Aeris about $10k less.

We are a Legacy dealer, and will be getting our display pair of Aerius later in the Year, We have heard them at shows. 

The 9H is a much more holographic loudspeaker with greater clarity then the Aerius, if you are looking for a gigantic sound with a warmer midrange the Aerius are very hard to beat.

As per why the Personas  weren't yet in the top 10 who knows, except,that the top ten may have a lot to do with how  many other reviewers have heard the same speakers with the Persona series being so new it is doubtful that many other reviewers have spent the time with the product that Mr. Cordesman has.

The Personas were in the Editors choice issue. 

So who knows  what politics or policies these guys follow.

If by your questioning why they aren't in the issue as something is wrong with the product I can assure you the Persona series is starting to get raves reviews on all who hear them, they like all reference speakers will be subject to personal opinion and taste and because the speakers have such tremendous resolution will be more dependent on system matching then more recessed speakers or ones without this level of resolution.

The same argument can be said for those guys who love Raal Ribbon tweeters or JM Labs products or B&W Diamond series, whenever you have a speaker which had remarkably extended treble the speakers can sound terrific or bright depending on system matching.

Our Legacy Signature setup  for example is super musical not quite the same degree of treble clarity but instead a huge, warm, layered sound with just a bit less detail then the Persona sound which is  why they sound so appealing to so many people. 

So  again, it  all comes down to personal taste and system matching. 

The Persona series are remarkable in so many ways and will continue to challenge the status quo for now and for many years in the future.

Troy
Audio Doctor
877 428 2873 








Dear Gabmetz, Thank you and you get it. Incidently I agree with you, we had the $120k Kharmas in our shop, as well as the Polymer Research MKX-s quite amazing speakers by the way, we also sell the Kef Blades.

Ctsooner just because you heard them at Bernies in Newington, doesn't mean anything, it means you don't like what you heard at Bernies, it doesn't mean you won't be amazed at hearing our setup or maybe not amazed but you may find that our setup is one of the most realistic systems you will ever hear and that is without first order slope speakers or you still may not like the speakers as much as your beloved Vandys. 

What I said in another post was the boss, Dave drove out to another dealer to hear the speakers and was not impressed with their setup, but he heard their potential so he took the leap of faith and ordered a set.

Everyone's setup room and gear are different, our room is 26 by 20 with a 10 foot ceiling, I stopped in to that dealer you spoke of many years ago to check out their Magico setup and I don't think they had one large sound room in their entire facility, many dealers don't. 

We are using $50k worth of T+A electronics, a Light Harmonic Davinci, $35k, a Baetis Music Computer, $15k and all Enklein cables prices vary, our room features Shakti Holographs, Acoustic System Resonators, Echo Buster Pannels and Stein Harmonizers to name a few of things we are doing to make the speakers perform optimally. 

We got a demo of the Isoacoustics Gaia and they were amazing and made a huge improvment. 

So you have to understand my point which I have made many times before each dealers setup is different we tried a lot of good electronics including Conrad Johnson, Devialet, Electrocompaniet, Thrax, Chord before we found the T+A gear was better then all the rest. 

I don't know Bernie and I am not saying he is getting the same sound better or worse then we are getting, I recommend that you finally come here and meet with Dave and myself and hear our reference system for yourself.

Your friend in NJ just purchased a Light Harmonic Davinci based on one of our setups in his home, we don't move into new lines casually, we test and listen and test.

We did compare the Davinci to EMM Labs DA2, the Berkly Reference 2 and a DCS Rossini,  and in our demo system the Davinci was much more musically satisfying. 

Troy
Audio Doctor
Shubert,

As per any of the bigger makers making anything they want that isn't true, the first issue is intent, the second is engineering prowess, and the third is having the budget to spend the money on R&D, just because a company is large doesn't mean they will go to the elaborate steps that Paradigm did to produce the Persona series which cost $4million dollars in R&D funds. 

Sony is a very large company way larger then Paradigm, and their reference speakers were rather tame in terms of pushing technology and they were also around $30k a pair!

The Paradigms Persona series will play whatever you want through them they are superb speakers that are  totally neutral. They will ultimately sound like whatever you use with them. 

Do they sound good for rock, yes they do as the speakers play loud with out compression, however, we play Jazz and classical on ours and they sound great no matter what is depends way more on the gear you are using and the music you are playing on them. 

The speakers have tremendous resolution so garbage in garbage out. 

Paradigm's loudspeakers have always been able to play loud and have been known for good bass and clean top end.

I would say that the lower end Prestige series is more like what you describe but not the Personas.

As per grabbing the wall street money, the Persona series starts at $7k a pair so that is what we would say affordable for a lot of music lovers who don't work on wall street. 


Troy
Audio Doctor






Ctsooner,  I am happy to see we do agree on that. You also seem like a passionate guy who loves his gear and after reading some of your threads I agree with some of what you say.  

There are some terrific dealers out there, and some where the people are nice but their setups are just okay and others where the sound is just plain lousy. The point I was making when you mentioned hearing the Personas at another dealer was how their setup and matching equipment was totally different then ours, and perhaps you would have a different take on the speakers after hearing our setup, I also said maybe not.

Personal taste is just that, personal. I am also not saying that the Personas are the greatest speakers on the world. 

What I have said is that the speakers can and do compare with many of the best products out there and in some ways transparency and holography may outperform some of the other brands in those areas.

You have also seen how we were attacked by a certain member for saying that. 

Several members who heard the other contenders agree with us and subsequently bought the  Persona speakers.

Personally I don't care if someone likes a different product than what I am representing, what I want is for someone who is considering making a purchase find a dealer hopefully a good one and get a demo of these products and be open to exploring something new which may be better and perhaps be even a better value. 

What I said in one of the other threads, was after finding the T+A gear which was compared to the crazy expensive CH Precision gear, by the TAS you would think that some of the members would have expressed interest in finding out where they could hear that product.

To date just one guy is going to hear the T+A stuff after reading our posts, and for the record that guy is in CA for we are not benefiting.

If that was me, and someone told me there was an amp for $19k expensive but somewhat doable, that compared to $120k of very respected and very expensive Swiss gear, I know I would have been on the phone the next day to find out who in the country sold that product. 

Can you imagine how dull the industry would be if no one championed these new and sometimes better products? 

To wit if you have been following these threads you will see some of the remarkably incendiary comments directed at me and the product. 

It is this small mindedness, and brand snobbery that gets my goat. 

Since I have been going to the Audio Doctor shop since the late nineties  they have had a number of great sounding reference speakers, Dave moves into and out of brands in the pursuit of the best possible products, and I am sure if he could find a line that represents better sound quality, engineering and fair pricing he would add that line as well.

I know it seems that I am pushing hard, you would push hard, in the face of being attacked by a certain member, that doesn't like the store owner, because he dared to "sell to him at a show and that same guy is pissed at me because I invaded a Wilson thread." 

As per invading that thread, I made one comment on how the Personas would work well in his small room and save the guy $20k and I got lambasted for that, that lead to a lengthy exchange to support my position and to support my friend. 

What is refreshing to see is how we have gotten support from a number of people here who are understanding our position.

There is a tremendous amount of negativity and brand elitism shown on these threads. 

People shouldn't care what brand of gear they are using it is the sound that should matter, with that being said, what we are being guilty of I have seen other members spouting the same rhetoric about the products that they endorse, over and over again.

i look forward to meeting you at the shop someday and we can finally play some music together.

Troy
Audio Doctor


Thanks Shubert.   I unfortunately have to agree with you. 

If you look at the other side of technology, every year many people will ditch their 1 year old Iphone or Android at $600-800 or more a pop and replace it with the new improved models.

If you add it up many people spend $5k and more for their phones not including the $100-200 a month to use them.

Or how many kids have $5-10k spent on video games. 

We are doing a piss poor job of getting new blood in the industry.

Troy
Audio Doctor