Paradigm Persona series

Folks, all speakers have a house sound.  That's due to the compromise that the designer makes.  This is why we either like or dislike specific brands.  I do try to go in with an open mind when any company changes a design practice.  I couldn't listen to Wilson's until Darrel took over and started to use a soft dome tweeter.  Uber dynamic and easier to listen to.  I could easily own pair now, but personally feel they are not detailed enough for my tastes and I don't get the emotion that I hear out of other speakers (including other's not named Vandersteen, lol).  

If you like Paradigm, then you will like these new speakers.  They are very well extended on top, so system matching is more crucial than other speakers (IMHO).  They are just too bright for my ears (as well as many folks I've spoken with) no matter what room they are in.  As I have stated, I've heard them many times in many situations.  That includes a friends house where the room sounds great.  Not overly damped as many are and his electronics are top notch tubes (AR ref gear).  It's the best I've heard them sound, but still just not my cup of tea. His either as he returned them adn is still looking.

That's not a cut at all. It's just that they have a house sound that is Paradigm's.  As I ahvce stated, I own an older pair still.  My daughter uses them for her parties at college (as I had their former top sub with them).  There are a ton of choices in the 35k and under range and of all varieties.  Now, more than ever, it's important to audition in stores and get advice from folks who actually match speakers to various electronics and cables.  System matching is as critical as ever.  There is a market for most gear (some stuff just universally sucks).

If the Personas are matched with Cerious Technologies speaker cables you will get a glorious midrange and delicate highs. All the brightness will disappear.
The Personas take 300 hrs of break in. I highly doubt any dealer has them even broken in properly. Beryllium midranges are brutally honest and you need matching electronics and cabling. Tubes somewhere in the chain sure help.
This is a great speaker but needs time and patience to get the best out of them.  

I still don't understand how you can use a cable to take something away from any speaker and not lose information.  Honest question and it goes for anything.  I am very surprised that if that specific cable needs to be used with the Paradigm in order to tame their high end.  I've never seen them offered at any of their stores I've been to and that's many.  

I listened to the Persona 7F yesterday for about half an hour in a room set up by the company rep. I was extremely disappointed with them. It's hard for me to imagine how a room or pairing of electronics could make a speaker sound that uninteresting, but they were the most uninteresting speakers I've heard in a very long time. I listened to a familiar album. The imaging was there. The bass was there. The details were there. And that's pretty much where they stopped doing their job. The dynamics were completely uninvolving. The tone and timbre, things I generally leave broader leeway for, didn't reflect the reality at all. When I attempted to harmonize with the singer, the difference between my voice and the reproduced voice was stark and very unconvincing. I'd like to think that something was wrong; the electronics or speakers not set up right somehow, a particularly lousy room....  The salesman asked me what I thought of them when I came out. I shook my head. "They're reproducing the music. The details are there, big and small. The soundstage was respectable. But they were thoroughly uninvolving. They had no slam or physicality." He tried to suggest that they were designed much different than the Klipsch LaScala I'd just listened to, and there's no doubt about that! I told him that my Focal at home sounded a LOT more like what I'd heard in that room (pointing to the Klipsch room) than what I just heard in there. I said I realize the tastes of listeners probably vary more than speaker designs do, but those certainly didn't represent excellent listening value to me, next to the Klipsch, or even my modest Focal. 
I tried them loud and soft, and they were commendably free of loss of details at lower volumes which made me think it wasn't so much the room. The shop is selling a brand new pair of 7F's for half off just to get them gone. It's Jamieson's Sound and Vision in Toledo, Ohio if anybody really likes them. They're really nice guys. I walked in and told them I had no intention of actually buying something, but I'd like to listen while my car was getting fixed and they set me up listening to everything I wanted to hear. 

Kost 

It all depends on setup. Just because the "factory rep" set them up doesn't mean a lot.  

The rep may or may not know the store's gear, and may have setup a system that may or may not have worked for the speakers or for your tastes for any number of reasons. 

Then you have the other variables which is the room's  acoustics and the collection of gear that they have to work with. 

The Persona are incredible speakers if you set them up correctly, one of the most important issues is system tuning. The Personas have a very neutral tonal balance, therefore, they tend to need warmer electronics to not sound sterile.

So perhaps the Personas you heard you might have really liked setup totally differently or perhaps not. 

We have found that the Personas  respond very favorably with Isoacoustics Gaia footers, add some of the Furutech NCF boosters to your system and  just by adding those two items your tonal balance will be a bit on the fuller side.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ