Paradigm Persona series

Have a pair of the 9H's driven by Pass XA30.8 amp. Very clean sound, bass is simply phenomenal, and the amp will drive them to extremely loud levels without moving the meter. Well worth an audition. 

If you search my previous responses to Paradigm Personas I’d caution against them as a multi Paradigm customer and a brief experience with their Persona flagship at my familiar Paradigm retailer.

After living with my Avalon Acoustics Eidolons, original Thiel and Vandersteen are designs that simply sound right to me. I was able to compare my Paradigm Studio 100 v2s, a demo pair of S8s and the Eidolons at home at the same time. Both my wife and Son heard the striking difference within the first few minutes.

As mentioned in those previous responses the Personas are a huge Paradigm improvement yet they still lacked the cohesive rightness your Thiels may offer. At their price you should be able to audition them at home. Match the bass extension to your Thiels and you’ll hear the difference for yourself.

I’ve used my two subwoofers with the Avalons in three different homes and they never loaded those rooms very well located next to the speakers.

You should expect an experienced dealer response here soon.

I too an a Vandy guy. I never was until I spent time with all the other speakers out there in my range and found them to be the best compromise.  Every speaker is a compromise and you either like or don't like what is compromised.  

The Vandy is similar in design to the old Thiel in that it's time and phase correct.  No smearing and tons of micro and macro detail.  Paired with a zero feedback design amp, it can be magical.  I also have found that in MY room, it's been the best by far as I have a difficult room.  I have spoken to Richard V about how he designs them and it's in a real world environment.  No special chambers etc...  That's probably why it's been the best sounding in my room.

I personally have heard the Paradigm's in many venues and never liked them.  Just not my cup of tea.  I found their highs to be tipped up bit and that's fatiguing to me (maybe not to others).  I also found them to lack coherency to MY ears.  Again, there are different speakers for all our ears.  This is why going to listen is so important.  Many designers will produce these ultra dynamic speakers as they will stand out in a store, but they often lack the micro and macro details that give you the emotion in a song.  Again, just my opinion.

I've only heard the 3f's from that line with an Anthem front end and I expected them to be bright, even had dealer play diana schuur and they were smooth, but regardless what people say about speaker break in he/dealer said they sounded pretty harsh for a good week. I thought the Kanta'2 imaged better at the same price though I wouldn't say either speaker was better.

At this price range and since you value dsp correction you have to check out Legacy Focus XD and Legacy Aeris with Wavelet. They check all your boxes , active amplification, correction across the audio band with tailored parameters for your speaker at factory. And they have been doing this longer than Paradigm, as far as I know. The purchase comes with in-house setup.

I am a long time Paradigm Studo 40v3 owner. I was really impressed by Legacy at RMAF this year. I listened to many speakers around 20K and more. Quite a value but not a compromised sound at all. You can easily spend way more and get less.