Rockport Mira VS Verity Parsifal Ovation

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.

Cmalak, I am from Greece, Yes. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to listen to the new Leonore yet although I' d love to.

Changster comment about Verity having a great feeling of being there (or live if you prefer) is spot on by the way.

Last year, I did a speaker hunt too with Rockport Verity(aquila & sarastro 2)being prime candidates. Both great speakers with different design approaches. If you want to run tubes, Verity would open you to more choices. My general observation is that Rockport ( at its best) is more dynamic in the bass. They also measure better by stereophile measurements with a more heroic cabinet and better dispersion.

Verity is more transparent in midrange and up (may be with first order crossover & ribbon tweeter). They both use different variants of audiotech. midrange. The Rockport was significantly less impressive when bass drivers firing inward. My concern would be bass cancellations. Bass may vary depending on stereo/mono content of the bass. It is true that bass frequencies is omnidirection. However, woofer direction changes phase of bass frequencies + modal excitiation of the room. My room is narrow so easy for me.

The bass quality has much more to do with the room, room/speaker coupling than just the speaker alone. You would have to pick the speaker with bass alignment (sealed, ported, firing direction) that matches the room (less modal exicitation). Before treating my room, bass was ponderous and fuzzy. Treating the room yield tight impactful bass. This goes for any speaker including the rockports. If you don't treat the room, you maybe better off with sealed port design like Magico or Avalon (bottom ported).

Other good choices are Evolution acoustics, Vandersteen, YG acoustcs, Tidal. These let you customize bass alignment via electrical adjustment or mechanical adjustment.

Ankaa is significantly better than Mira and probably best deal in the line up.

Changster,

which city are you in? Singapore or HK