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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. 



128x128kuppe38
kuppe38's avatar
kuppe38 OP
28 posts
 
I haven't bought anything, yet.

I don't know how you could say the Legacy's are bright, the Aeris and the Focus use the same midrange and tweeter and they sound very Vandersteen like, big sound stage, warm and very liquid in the treble. So are you basing what you heard at a show or at a dealers, and at a dealers it would also depend on what equipment they were using at the Audio Doctor show room they are delicious sounding, and are anything but bright.

Maybe your are confused with the older models which do not use the newer Heil drivers?


As per the Paradigms not be half that of the Quattros, how can you make that statement, Cordesman said they are among the best speakers at any price,?

Perhaps you heard them with less than flattering gear, or the pair wasn't broken in. At the Audio Doctor showroom they were amazing, completely holographic, smooth, with great bass and thrilling dynamics.
They sound totally real. So could it be that your experience is very different based on where you heard them? 

As per Wilson's not being dynamic? What they are known for being very dynamic. 

Why don't you visit their showroom and see for yourself, I would be delighted to meet you there and introduce you. 

Did Audio Plus ever distribute Paradigm, I thought they always did Focal?


ctsooner
2,104 posts
 
Should you ever listen to enough live music thru various Vandersteen speakers, you'll notice their drivers/crossovers are  Phase and time Time correct.  They are wired in the same polarity as the microphone. This allows listeners, especially me, a natural timing and feel for the music.

My take is that this is the way are brains are wired.  Conventional speakers certainly do their best from a tonal standpoint, but their drivers polarity are randomly pushing forward while their other drivers are sucking.  That's 180 degrees out of phase in the back direction and may explain why it sounds disjointed for me and others.  It's more then just a tonal thing, its the whole experience of combined efforts and pieces that work together to create a point source, coherent sound that is musical and has no smearing, giving us the micro and macro detail without fatigue.

        Thanks CT
                 


mr_bill
273 posts
 
Stop the email, I mean, the forum wars!!
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
1,621 posts
 
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. 


scorpio1951
171 posts
 
   To go back to the original question, I also read the review of the new Paradigm speaker. I have read many reviews written by Anthony Cordesman over the years I respect him very much. Having said that, just listen to your own ears and get the speakers that you like the best, and for a price that it is worth it to you. Then, be happy!
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