I got to listen to a pair of Magnepan .7s + Paradigm Prestige 95Fs today

CB22

CB22

Senior Audioholic
The .7s are not bad speakers but I was not blowen away either. IMO, the midrange/ treble was not as detailed as I'd prefer. The soundstage was good but not as good as I thought it would be. The Prestige 95F's I really like though. Seemed to have the detail, clarity and bass punch. I really enjoyed the time with them.
 
D

D Murphy

Full Audioholic
The .7s are not bad speakers but I was not blowen away either. IMO, the midrange/ treble was not as detailed as I'd prefer. The soundstage was good but not as good as I thought it would be. The Prestige 95F's I really like though. Seemed to have the detail, clarity and bass punch. I really enjoyed the time with them.
I'm a little surprised--the Stereophile measurements are pretty awful. I need another post before I can insert a link, so I'll do that shortly.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Hey DM! Interesting, certainly not a very neutral speaker. I dunno, I enjoyed them more than the .7s. I just found there their 5k for the pair! JEASUS!
I don't know how you auditioned them, but IME, if you don't listen to enough of a variety of music, you don't always notice FR issues. For example I have experienced male and female vocals sounding great on a speaker, but it wasn't until both the male and female vocals were together that it became obvious that the female vocals had undue emphasis relative to the male vocals (or maybe it was the other way around). I believe Pink Floyd's "Time" was the song where I experienced this.
 
CB22

CB22

Senior Audioholic
I don't know how you auditioned them, but IME, if you don't listen to enough of a variety of music, you don't always notice FR issues. For example I have experienced male and female vocals sounding great on a speaker, but it wasn't until both the male and female vocals were together that it became obvious that the female vocals had undue emphasis relative to the male vocals (or maybe it was the other way around). I believe Pink Floyd's "Time" was the song where I experienced this.
Very true. I had about an hour of listing. I listened to a couple of songs by Nora and Floyd's 'on the run' on each speaker, no male vocals. The thing that most stood out on the .7's was with Nora. The mid range did not seem as defined. Even at higher volumes it seemed like the mid and treble blended tougher a little bit too much. However, with Floyd I had no complains about the .7s.
 
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic
The Prestige series have a similarly tailored response as the Persona series, the main difference is the bump from 1-2K and an additional 5db in the upper bass, but the overall curve is quite similar, just more exaggerated with the Prestige.

Persona 5F



Prestige 95F

 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
The Prestige series have a similarly tailored response as the Persona series, the main difference is the bump from 1-2K and an additional 5db in the upper bass, but the overall curve is quite similar, just more exaggerated with the Prestige.

Persona 5F



Prestige 95F

The bass bump has a lot to do with the way John Atkinson measures speakers and probably is not there as much as a part of the speaker's response. The real problem with the Prestige speakers is the mids. An elevation at 10 kHz isn't that big of a deal (to be clear, I would rather a flat response overall), and the spike above 20 kHz is nothing to be concerned about, but that midrange response does not belong on a speaker as expensive as those, especially from Paradigm who have the resources to do better. My guess is that they were so stuck on their X-PAL aluminum diaphragms that they were willing to compromise the response to go all aluminum. But even then, there are much better measuring speakers that use aluminum, like from Infinity and Revel. Thankfully, Paradigm corrected this course with the Premiers which measure fabulously and also sounds terrific. There really should be more chatter about the Premiers, I don't think many people realize how good those speakers really are.

By the way, if you want to get a better look at the Persona's response, look at this page.
 
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic
The bass bump has a lot to do with the way John Atkinson measures speakers and probably is not there as much as a part of the speaker's response. The real problem with the Prestige speakers is the mids. An elevation at 10 kHz isn't that big of a deal (to be clear, I would rather a flat response overall), and the spike above 20 kHz is nothing to be concerned about, but that midrange response does not belong on a speaker as expensive as those, especially from Paradigm who have the resources to do better. My guess is that they were so stuck on their X-PAL aluminum diaphragms that they were willing to compromise the response to go all aluminum. But even then, there are much better measuring speakers that use aluminum, like from Infinity and Revel. Thankfully, Paradigm corrected this course with the Premiers which measure fabulously and also sounds terrific. There really should be more chatter about the Premiers, I don't think many people realize how good those speakers really are.

By the way, if you want to get a better look at the Persona's response, look at this page.
Personas have been measured by Soundstage at the NRC anechoic chamber and also by Harman Audio at their socal anechoic chamber, both have very similar measurements--rising response from 7-10K and a hump in the mids. In general it's a very bright speaker. When I put the Persona B in a head to head compared to the Revel M126BE, Dynaudio C1, Kef Reference 1, TAD ME-1, Salk Silk, and a few other flagship monitors, it really stood out with how bright it sounded. It looks like they basically copied the B&W 800 series frequency response.
 
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