Rockport Mira VS Verity Parsifal Ovation

Argyro...I am not offended by your preference for Verity over Rockport :-) I like both speakers a lot as you could probably tell from my lengthy responses to the OP above. I was just wondering what you had auditioned the Rockports with to make sure it was a good match for the speaker. You have a beautiful system. I am sure it sounds amazing. Are you in the States or in Greece? Also have you had a chance to listen to Verity's new Leonore speaker (replacement for the Fidelio)? I would be very interested in your impressions if you had heard them. Thx

I found the Rockports to be incredibly tipped in the high end. Very very bright speakers with the highs somewhat disembodied with the mids. The Miras were very lean in the bass.

Madfloyd...they were definitely not set up correctly if that's what you heard. Did you hear them at a show or at a dealer? If at an audio show, poor room sonics or partnering equipment were the likely culprits. I doubt you heard them at a dealer (only 3 in the US) and I am sure these dealers (at least mine in Mass) knows how to properly set them up. My two cents ofcourse.

Madfloyd, i've not heard the Miras, but the Ankaa & Aquila (that i've heard) sound nothing like the way you've described them.

Madfloyd, I've never heard anyone say Rockports are tipped in the high end and very very bright. Not sure what kind of conditions you heard them in but I think if room acoustics were even 50% ideal they wouldn't sound like that.

I have heard the Parsifal Ovations side by side, A/B, with Wilson Sashas in a slightly overdamped room. When placed properly I think the Parsifal's actually outperformed the Sasha's. Better timbre, truer to the tone of instruments, even better bass extension for such tiny speakers. The Sasha's, which were not completely broken in, had better imaging (more "hi-fi" in placement), slightly bigger soundstage, was more forward in nature, but I thought lacked the "truer" musically I thought the Parsifals brought.

Back to Rockports. Where I live, the Parsifals are about US$25k, roughly what you can buy the Rockport Ankaas for here. To me, that's a no brainer. The sheer size and beauty of the Rockports along with fantastic sound (sounds like "live," great integrated bass, massive soundstage height/depth/width to me would make me choose the Ankaas over the Parsifals. Verity's philosphy is is a different direction from Rockports I believe, and personally I prefer the Rockports. Earlier we were comparing the Mira vs the Parsifals, and that would be a different comparison (I may choose Parsifals in that case). To me the Ankaas and Parsifals are in 2 different leagues.

The cool thing about where I live is I can compare just about every top end brand (Kharma, Marten, Rockport, Wilson, Magico, TAD, Verity, MBL, Dynaudio, Vivid, etc etc) within a 15 minute commute. I've listened to them all lately as i was hunting for speakers, albeit all different rooms and setups/electronics. I can say without a doubt, in those very different rooms and setups, from what I heard, that the Ankaas are the best bang for the buck out there. I'm trying to not start a fire, but I'd have to say they are on par if not better than Wilson Maxx 3's in some respects. Again, my disclaimer is that they were all different rooms and setups, but at least they were all in the dealer showrooms (not at a show) where they tried their best to set it up in the best possible conditions at their store.

Cheers.