Paradigm Persona series


I'm beginning to poke around and gather opinions and information about a "super speaker" to replace my aging Thiel 2.4s.  I like the idea of bass dsp room correction and I am a bit of a point source type imaging nut (thus the Thiels).  So among other choices I've been looking at the Paradigm Persona series specifically the powered 9H with room correction for the bass.  However I'm skeptical of the "lenses" i.e. pierced metal covers on the midrange and tweeter specifically because of Paradigm's claim that such screens "screen out" "out of phase" musical information.  The technology in the design seems superlative but I just can't get past the claim re out of phase information and the midrange and tweeter covers.  What could possibly be the science behind this claim?  It just seems like its putting a halloween moustache on the mona lisa given the fact that the company is generally a technology driven company.
pwhinson

Showing 1 response by jeffersondavis

The major problem with the Persona is just plain physics. I’ve always said they should’ve used the 4" mid from the center channel with the rest of the lineup instead of the 7" midrange.

A 2.4KHz crossover with a 7" driver is just too high, and will cause a hole in the sound radiation profile of the speakers in the mids, which you can see in sound and vision measurements, consistently across all models the 1-2KHz range is scooped. Now I understand WHY these speakers crossed over high, generally retail brands do this reduce costs for warranty coverage because lowering power input to the tweeter significantly reduces the chances of a blown tweeter, and most speakers are blown due to overdriven amplifiers which overloads the tweeter. But really 1700-1800Hz is a much better place to cross over with a 7", giving a generally good trade-off between directivity and power handling.

https://www.soundandvision.com/images/717parad.meas.jpg

This matched my own listening experience while a owner of the Persona B. There was no heft or dynamics in the midrange. They are a little on the brighter side but no brighter than other high end brands like TAD or B&W.