Rockport Mira VS Verity Parsifal Ovation

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

That's what I was wondering too...maybe I should go and visit and not spend all this time wondering what Rockport, Totem, Dynaudio, Usher, Acoustic Zen.....sound like

Glai - agree that the bass has a lot to do with the room and placement. Did you get a chance to demo the Aquila in your room? I'd be curious to know whether indeed the side firing woofers would be a problem in a narrow room. I would think Andy Payor thought about this while designing it. I think a big market nowadays for high end speakers is in Asia, and so many rooms in Asia are small.

I bought the Aquila (has not been delivered) because my dealer insisted the Altair and Arrakis (can't afford this) would be too my energy for my room and would have to be pulled away from the backwall too much and I'd be sitting too close to the speakers. My room is is about 5.4 meters x 13 meters but I face the short side (and it's not completely rectangle, it's more like a trapezoid). I didn't worry too much about side firing woofers since I'm on the short end and they would firing into the long end. I can see how you would worry about bass cancellations if you fire into the short end. It'd be interesting to hear the logic/theory whether this is a real concern or if it's just a misnomer, i.e whether side firing woofers are bad for narrow rooms.

I'm in Taipei btw.