i just bought a pair of the 826's. i was also thinking hard about the paradigm reference 60 and reference 100. the paradigms were a lot better in the low end; very tight, very focused. individual notes, not muddy. and very musical, which i find hard to achieve with bass for some reason. the bass just seemed to fit in with the music. very good balance. it wasn't "blatty", it wasn't pushed into your face. the upper mids and highs were lacking, however, and this is my problem. due to work problems, my upper-end hearing isn't the best. if your hearing is in good shape, i'll bet you'd love these speakers
but mine isn't. so on to the focals. the 826 in particular. the exact inverse of the paradigms. upper mids and highs aren't bright or prominent, but they are more of a presence. i was hearing stuff in that range on the focals that i couldn't hear on the paradigms. and the upper end on the focals is really clear; you can 'hear' the dead air around a performer, the empty space behind them in a recording. really clean and airy. just magnitudes beyond the paradigms. the problem with the focals, of course, is the bottom end. not as refined, not as defined. i'm not a bass-head, and i don't like a ton of bass, but i want to hear the clarity of the upper end, so between the two, i'm willing to put up with a bass problem to get the upper clarity i want
of course, i'm working on tightening up the bass on the focals. i A/B'ed a rotel cd player and a cambridge audio one. the rotel was $800, the CA was $1800, and i liked the rotel better. go figure. i took the rotel separates out of the mix and plugged in a CA integrated, the one that gets rave reviews. i'm just not a CA fan, i guess. it tightened up the bass, but at the expense of dumbing-down the top end as well. i was disappointed in this. when i get home from my business trip, i'm gonna try a marantz integrated. i'm also gonna hook a Moon integrated into them. i have high hopes for the moon; my dealer has it plugged into some $10,000 revels and they sound stupendous.
so overall, i really like the focals, mainly for the upper mids and highs. if i can find something to tighten up the bottom i'll be ecstatic
as always, YMMV