Paradigm Persona series

When I heard the 5F with a Lyngdorf 2170 it sounded rather bad. I really wanted to like the Lyngdorf and it was more the reason I went to that demo. I excluded the amp section of the Lyngdorf by going preamp out to a Simaudio 860A amp. We had to do some sound degrading RCA to XLR conversions but nevertheless the sound was very agreeable to me and that is the reason for me to purchase the Persona 3F. I will not get  the Simaudio amp I demoed but something lower priced with similar sound characteristics.

I have heard a lot of speakers, being close to Los Angeles, makes this easy. So it is not like I do not know what is out there. Different strokes.

Csmgolf,  the setup did not sound bright at all, compared to other speakers the Persona's had far greater clarity then the Kef R series which we also demoed. 

Yes it is true these are not laid back speakers they are however remarkably transparent, fast and accurate and so if you prefer a warmer more recessed sound then this kind of accuracy will not be for you. 

We also demoed the 3F with the more expensive Naim NAC 272 dac and preamp and a 250dr, and then  we added the XPS 2 power supply and the system started to sound really magnificent. 

In retrospect the demo was a bit flawed on the higher end Naim as we could not use Roon directly  into the NAC 272 and had to use another streamer with an spdif cable to play the test files which were storred on a usb thumb drive. 

Also there is a way to change the sound quality radically on the Naim Uniti products if you are using Naim which is to ouput your PCM files as DSD which the Uniti can handle and boom now you have the elevated midrange and softer top end of DSD decoding we didn't do that either.

Normally our demos last for 2-3 hours this demo was a bit brief  so we didn't even scratch the surface of what we can do and how we can tune the speakers to match someone's taste.

There is also a huge range of gear to choose from in our shop, we started with the Naim Uniti for one reason which we Mr. Hofer also heard the Wilson Sabrinas on the same amplifier. 

We never went to the Krell K300i which is a very warm integrated nor did we listen to the Antem STR amp/preamp combo which also sounds really outstanding on the Anthem. 

You are welcome to visit our shop and see for yourself

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Paradigm Persona, Krell, Naim, Anthem dealers

I listened to them toed in a bit, and if you look around you'll read a bunch of reviewers/users are setting them up facing straight ahead to avoid an overly bright presentation. Apart from the brightness, I think the Paradigms are *very* stiff competition for the much more expensive Wilson Sabrina.

Actually ahofer said in this post on this thread that they sounded bright in your shop. Of course you would say they didn't sound bright. He said they did. Plus, bright is bright and is not accurate. The Stereophile measurements show it, the measurements ahofer linked show it, and my experiences listening to it match what the measurements show. If you like that, great but don't say that it is accurate. 

Translation
McIntosh is slightly veiled, rounded and warm  (I had an all Mac system for years) and you need that to mitigate the brightness and harshness in the Paradigms.

Actually Cmsgolf, bright can be very accurate, if your recording for example was from,  Deustshe Graphaphon, and made in the mid 80's or a Telarc,  digital recording in the mid 80's tended to sound bright due to the digital encoders  and mixing consoles at the time, and they sound bright on the playback that is accurate as those are the sound of those recordings.

You also failed to understand that even if  the gentleman found them "bright" we can tune that out by something as simple as a playback change in Roon. 

We did not have the time to really go into and explore changes that can be made by playing with different gear and software  changes which affect playback.

The demo was a bit rushed and we started with a different set of speakers before switching to the Personas and then we swtiched electronics, we encouraged Mr. Hofer to come back for a much greater extended session where we can play a wider variety of tracks on different gear.

And as hell is freezing over, we are agreeing with grgr4blu on something and he is acutally being nice,  that Mcintosh tends to sound warm and veiled a bit, and that Mcintosh or similarly voiced electronics, actually Naim sounds a bit like that in a good way are the keys to making the Personas sound good.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers