Paradigm Persona B Bookshelf Speaker Arms-on Evaluate

Paradigm Persona B hands-on

MSRP $7,000.00

“Paradigm’s astonishing Persona B audio system allow you to sit in together with your favourite musicians.”

Professionals

• Attractive design
• Vivid, lifelike sound
• Insane stereo picture
• Nice for smaller rooms

Cons

• Excessive efficiency comes at a luxurious value

Identical to you may get a Corvette that stalks the heels of the most recent Ferarri, you possibly can method the awe-inspiring transparency provided by Paradigm’s $7,000-per-pair Persona B bookshelf audio system at a significantly cheaper price.

However be they supercars or large 8K TVs, when you attain into the stratosphere of high quality in cutting-edge tech, you’re paying for greater than a product with very good parts. You’re shopping for experiences that transcend logical worth.

After months of listening to Paradigm’s latest musical spaceships, we’d be mendacity if we didn’t say that we now share an odd kinship with Ferrari house owners. With a sprawling stereo picture, pristine audio readability and element, all mixed with the fragile stability of a world-class rock climber, the Persona B are simply the perfect bookshelf audio system this reviewer has ever heard.

At Digital Developments, we’re staunch believers within the excellent match between value and efficiency. However even we’ve to confess that generally you really can put a excessive value on unadulterated musical happiness. On this case, that value is seven grand.

What you pay for

Slightly over a decade handed between the discharge of Paradigm’s earlier flagship Signature Sequence audio system and the brand new Persona lineup, and although the audio system took a large leap in value between fashions (the Signature listed for between $1,900 and $6,000 per pair, the Personas run between $7,000 and $35,000) the corporate additionally added important technological enhancements.

At the start, each Persona mannequin — from the bookshelf Persona B mannequin we examined to the top-of-the-line Persona 9H floorstanders — function beryllium diaphragms. With rigidity that’s 3 times greater than titanium and but a density that’s two and a half occasions decrease, beryllium has the power to offer speaker drivers with an astonishing frequency response (36Hz-45kHz). That interprets into the unbelievable sound, particularly within the greater registers.

Riley Younger/Digital Developments

Alongside enhancements in audio tech, the corporate additionally put appreciable consideration into the design of the enclosures. It’s clear as quickly as you take a look at them that no expense was spared. At 30 lbs per unit, the fin-like Persona B are about as sturdy as they arrive, with beautiful swirling grills that cowl every driver and 4 carbon fiber-coated terminals (for optionally available bi-amping or bi-wiring) on the again.

Even of their stance on prime of Paradigm’s sturdy speaker stands, the curvy, spaceship-like Persona B audio system attain out to you. They’ve acquired a heavy, angled metallic base and an equally angled prime that makes them look as if they’re leaning in to softly whisper musical secrets and techniques.

Astonishing sound

The Persona B look superb, however they sound completely magical. That’s to say: While you press play, they disappear.

As an alternative of listening to directional sound from the audio system themselves, you’ll hear each minute element of the music in a collage of vivid, room-filling colours. Each tiny finger pluck, each breath, each itty-bitty musical component, they’re all proper in entrance of you and seemingly tangible, as if your favourite band is enjoying that excellent take proper in your listening room.

Simply the perfect bookshelf audio system we’ve ever heard.

We’re used to great-sounding bookshelf audio system making a type of diorama of our favourite bands, reproducing them on an imaginary miniature stage between the audio system, however the Persona B have such a large stereo picture and such fluid stability throughout high and low frequencies, all the things sounds full dimension and lifelike.

This impact is most astonishing when listening to reside recordings. Ahmad Jamal’s At The Pershing appears like we’re consuming dinner in a mid-century jazz membership. Peter Frampton’s basic album Frampton Comes Alive seems like we’re on the rattling area.

Reside recordings are epic, however the Persona B sound unbelievable no matter you feed them. Belief us, we tried all the things. We listened to the Persona B audio system by way of an Anthem STR built-in amp, by way of all the things from high-end gadgets like an Astell & Kern moveable participant and an EAT B-Sharp turntable to a lowbrow cellphone streaming Spotify. Shock, shock: They sounded superb in all circumstances.

The right small room speaker?

If the Persona B taught us something, it’s that the overwhelming majority of listeners — high-end or in any other case — don’t really want large floorstanding audio system to get vivid, lifelike sound.

The very fact is, most of us don’t have spacious, completely handled rooms that may deal with large fashions just like the Persona 9H or GoldenEar’s Triton Reference. As an alternative, trying on the newest technology of high-end bookshelf fashions makes much more sense for almost all of listeners. That’s very true for the reason that newest choices from corporations like KEF, Paradigm, and others can simply fill a small to medium-sized room with sound, with out involving the location points of larger fashions.

Riley Younger/Digital Developments

So, what concerning the Persona B’s exorbitantly excessive sticker value? Properly, so far as we’re involved, for these with lots of padding of their financial institution accounts, it’s value it — so long as you propose on having fun with them to the fullest. In spite of everything, many individuals purchase that high-end supercar or huge new TV to impress mates and neighbors. However it’s those who purchase it for the love of the expertise that can get their cash’s value.

If we had the money, we’d be snagging a pair of Persona B audio system, even when we had been the one ones who ever acquired to listen to them.

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