New Paradigm Persona Speaker

J

Joe Cybulski

Audiophyte
Hi all anyone have any info on the new speakers from Paradigm Persona.
 
I

idealty

Audiophyte
Hi Joe. Yes, I posted a bunch of info over on AVSForum in the paradigm owners thread. I've been anxiously anticipating these speakers for a while and now they are almost here. My local dealer has them ordered and is expected to get them in mid-late September. In addition, Paradigm will officially unveil the entire Persona line at CEDIA 2016 starting on September 13th. Not long now :)

Info I collected from my dealer:
Dealers are now able to order their showroom models with expected arrival in mid-late September. In fact, my dealer had a full Persona brochure that was only for the retailer and not customers as of yet (since the series hasn't been officially announced). The brochure included everything you would expect: pictures, specs, price etc. First the full Personal lineup is as follows:

9H FloorStander (flagship) - Four 8.5" powered woofers, one 7" Beryllium midrange, one 1" Berylllium tweeter
7H FloorStander - Two 8.5" passive woofers, one 7" Beryllium midrange, one 1" Berylllium tweeter
5H FloorStander - Three 7" passive woofers, one 7" Beryllium midrange, one 1" Berylllium tweeter
3H FloorStander - Two 7" passive woofers, one 7" Beryllium midrange, one 1" Berylllium tweeter
Center Channel - 3.5 way speaker configured like a C5 signature but couldn't see full details
B29 Bookshelf - 2 way speaker with one 7" Beryllium midrange, one 1" Berylllium tweeter

Again, I couldn't see the full brochure with ALL the details but here are some of the details I was able to get:
  • The entry price for the B29 is lower than expected at $7000/pair (previously said to be ~$9000/pair)
  • The center channel speaker is of the large CC690/C5 type and features 6 drivers in total. Price is $7500 per speaker
  • The 3H Floorstander is definitely the sweet spot and best value in the line. It will be $10000 (roughly the same as a Signature S8 v.3) but has deeper bass response than the S8 and looks to be between the S6 and S8 in physical size. -2db low freq response is 35hz!! (S8 is only 39hz at -2db)
  • The 5H Floorstander is priced at about $15000 and 7H at about $22000
  • The pricing of the Persona line explain why there is no Signature follow up. Since the Prestige series tops out at $5000 and the Persona starts at $7000 for the bookshelf there is no room for a speaker line in between the two.
  • Several of the folks that heard the speakers at a recent dealer event said the midrange was the absolutely best they've ever heard. The clarity, air, and accuracy coming from the beryllium midrange is the real deal and competes with anything on the market

I for one am keeping a keen eye on that 3H Floorstander and should be able to hear it at my dealer in a few weeks!

Pics (Can find more over a Quadio's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/qaudiohifi/)


 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
  • The 3H Floorstander is definitely the sweet spot and best value in the line. It will be $10000 (roughly the same as a Signature S8 v.3) but has deeper bass response than the S8 and looks to be between the S6 and S8 in physical size. -2db low freq response is 35hz!! (S8 is only 39hz at -2db)
Definitely goes into mildly interesting category. As for bass spec, these perform exactly as well at only fifth of the price.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
My local dealer had a 3-hour demo of the 9H, wish I could have made it. There's one huge difference, BSA...the Paradigm Persona are an active (powered) speaker. at least the 9H demo'd is.

Correction, it's just the woofers on that speaker that are powered.
 
Last edited:
E

eralimited57

Audiophyte
Today I visited the Nebraska Furniture Mart to listen to the new Paradigm 9H speakers. I read quite a bit about them online and after hearing some very good reviews I thought it would be interesting to stop by since they are only about 15 minutes from my home and check out the 9H. Nebraska Furniture Mart has installed new sound rooms so one is able to get a listen at higher volume in a controlled environment.

The have a very nice set up with a flat screen where you can choose from any music that is high quality digital format.

So I asked to hear Dire Straights Sultan of Swing first.

Before I headed over I played this song on my setup in my listening room at home using a high quality digital format that I have on my SSHD so that I would have it fresh in my mind.

Ok, so back to Nebraska Furniture Marts Sound room and the paradigm 9Hs.

I sat my self down on the bench in front of the speakers expecting to hear something well beyond what I am hearing from my speakers and to my surprise I must say I was quite disappointed. The 9Hs sounded flat with little bass and well just boring. I am thinking these things cost like $17,500 each! Wow and people will pay that to get this level of sound and look at those monster cables and all the Mark Levinson equipment driving them.

Then I had them put on Stevie Ray Vaughan and once again I it was quite underwhelming. I mentioned to the lady that they sounded lifeless and flat and she came back with, well they probably aren't broken in yet.

Alright so now I will tell you what I am comparing them to that I listen to and that is a pair of Energy RC-70s with an HSU sub woofer drivin by a Parasound a21 and a NAD 758 receiver with 12 gauge wire and gold plated banana plugs.

I came back home and cranked up Sultans of Swing once again and I had a big smile on my face. I thought man this sounds so alive and in my face and the bass wow, the mids and highs so crisp and clear. Also the 3D imaging on the Energy's and the dispersion is so massive. I really did not notice much imaging on the 9Hs at all - the so called holographic effect was not there for me.

Now I know that I am listening to what I consider a very high quality level of sound. I also have a pair of Apogee Centauras Slant 6s and a pair of Magnepan 1.7s. I only compared the 9Hs to the Energy's mostly because they are both box speakers. BTW the HSU subwoofer is turned way down so the rich deep bass that is present is mostly coming from the RC-70s.

$35,000 dollars worth of speakers, Cables that are 1.5" in diameter and a ton of Mark Levinson equipment, well all I can say is I am quite happy with what I have.
 
Last edited:
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
The 9H speakers have very powerful bass that would easily surpass that of your Hsu sub. There is either something wrong with their setup of the Persona speakers, or you are simply acclimated to your setup and don't care for another sound signature. The Persona speaker image very well. They may have a problem with setup.
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
The 9H speakers have very powerful bass that would easily surpass that of your Hsu sub. There is either something wrong with their setup of the Persona speakers, or you are simply acclimated to your setup and don't care for another sound signature. The Persona speaker image very well. They may have a problem with setup.
I only demoed the 3F, but came away underwhelmed also...not that the speakers sounded bad, but after hearing the Revel F208, I thought the price/performance was lacking I thought for $10k. In fairness it was not an apples-to apples demo, but it was hard hearing the extra $5k.
 
E

eralimited57

Audiophyte
The 9H speakers have very powerful bass that would easily surpass that of your Hsu sub. There is either something wrong with their setup of the Persona speakers, or you are simply acclimated to your setup and don't care for another sound signature. The Persona speaker image very well. They may have a problem with setup.
If this were Joe's speaker shop I could image that perhaps "something was wrong with their setup" as you mention. Being Nebraska Furniture Mart and judging from the looks of it being very high tech there was no cost spared here. I would really doubt it if this were set up by the NFM employees. This was obviously set up by professionals who knew what they were doing. Again, I say, blah, to the Paradigm 9Hs. Very underwhelmed by what I heard.

Regarding bass: to me there was no comparison between the bass produced by the HSU subwoofer (I own) and the Paradigm 9Hs.
 
Last edited:
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic




The Personas are not neutral speakers, they have a "W Curve" frequency response (other than the center channel), the best analog I can come up with the headphone space would be the Sony MDR-Z1R. They have a very specific "hifi" sound flavor. It's a real shame that they weren't tuned to be neutral or follow something like the Harman curve, because they are as they say, the only speaker other than the insanely expensive TAD Evolution line with beryllium midrange drivers, and if they had been tuned right, could be the best value at their price range. Instead it's a speaker that needs serious work with a REW or Room Correction to hit a reasonable target curve that isn't fatiguing over time.

It looks to me like with the way the drivers were tuned, the entire lineup would have been better off with the 4" beryllium midrange from the center channel instead of the larger 7" mid, and the Persona B should have been a 3-way.
 
Last edited:
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top