That’s a cop out. The speaker is bright. Demoing Paradigm Persona 3F and Focal Kanta No. 2, at different shops, with the same recordings, they both sound bright/harsh and uninvolving, despite the great resolution. The Paradigms were on my amp (Schiit Ragnarok). The Focals were on both McIntosh and Naim electronics (tried them two different days).
Both speakers made good recordings sound bright/OK. They both made average recordings sound horrible, and bad recordings make me want to gouge my ears out. Unfortunately, most good music isn’t recorded super well. Both speakers were also unlistenable at higher or even moderate volumes. 80 dB on my Decibel iPhone app was painful and down went the volume again.
Contrast that with the Revel F228be at the same dealer as the Focal, and they were at least listenable. None of the above speakers conveyed the emotion of the music.
Contrasting all of those with Aerial Acoustics 6T, it was no contest. Much more bass (despite the smaller bass woofer size). Made great recordings sound awesome and poor recordings sound great. You could crank them up without wincing. I was listening at 85 dB (measured with my same app mentioned above) without even realizing it. And most of all, the Aerials conveyed the emotion of the music and brought tears to my eyes. On the same songs I had been demoing with all speakers and was very sick of at the time.
One should not HAVE to tweak footers, cables and electronics in order to make a speaker listenable. One should be rewarded with additional marginal gains if they do so. The Paradigm fall in the former camp. They are inherently flawed, and folks should know that going in.
