Paradigm Persona 5F Tower Loudspeaker Review

[ichigo]

I happened to have a friend's Persona B available to compare with my Dynaudio C1, which is much more neutral.

Interestingly, soundstage AV's measurements were right on. After running room correction both the scooped vocal range and the treble peak were corrected for.

My theory about the scooped vocals is that the floorstanders cross over at 450Hz, and the tweeter/midrange module was actually voiced with the X-PAL woofers in mind. By using the same drivers in the Persona B, they are missing quite a bit of output below 500Hz and they either insufficiently modified the 7" beryllium mid, or didn't make any changes to it at all, which leaves an output gap. Kind of a weird oversight for a $7000 bookshelf speaker, but it wouldn't be the first time there was a performance drop off with the surround channels in a flagship series (i.e., Ultima2 series).

 

[Amazme1]

Paradigm charges $2550 for their custom paint finish but won’t tell you how many coats of paint are applied. Why?

 

[Cos]

Paradigm charges $2550 for their custom paint finish but won’t tell you how many coats of paint are applied. Why?

General observation, is that the paint quality is exceptional, I don't think anyone will have issue with the fit and finish of the speakers paint. That being said, $2250 is an amazingly stupid expensive upcharge. Paradigm is not afraid to price gouge on accessories.

1. The Persona C Speaker Stand is $800 which is about $500 too much. I was able to get mine on demo.
2. If you want speaker grills (3Fs) expect to spend about an additional $600.00 (Yes that is their price for 2 speaker grills)

The thing about Paradigm, is you can negotiate on price. My 3Fs did not cost me significantly more than the Person B List price, so it's not all bad news

 

[Cos]

Speaker Measurements for Founder 100F look Pretty decent. Not a huge spike after 10k

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: Paradigm Founder Series 100F Loudspeakers

 

[Eppie]

Speaker Measurements for Founder 100F look Pretty decent. Not a huge spike after 10k

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: Paradigm Founder Series 100F Loudspeakers

It's nice that we finally get to see some measurements. I'll cross-post in the Paradigm owners thread if it hasn't been already.

 

[Cos]

It's nice that we finally get to see some measurements. I'll cross-post in the Paradigm owners thread if it hasn't been already.

LOL I meant to post it there

 

[Pogre]

Funny you guys bumped this thread tho, as I recently discovered the Personas are available in vanta black. I wonder if they're truly vanta black? That'd be pretty cool. You could have 2 speaker shaped black holes in your living room!

 

[Cos]

Funny you guys bumped this thread tho, as I recently discovered the Personas are available in vanta black. I wonder if they're truly vanta black? That'd be pretty cool. You could have 2 speaker shaped black holes in your living room!

Vanta Black Gloss, so shinny black holes. Problem is that the Vanta Black come with the Silver Metal work standard, before they would charge you to change metal work, but I just spec'd it out and they don't anymore. Either way they are very nice color. I do like my carbon black Metalic ones