Verity Parsifal Encore opinions

Let's also not forget about the custom shipping crates! A real nice touch from fantastic sounding speaker and a first class company!

For me in any price range this the most beatifull sounding speaker if you find right synergy in your systeem and be carefull if you have them VERY DIFICULT THE FIND THE RIGHT PLACEMENT BUT IF YOU FIND IT ...

Actually they're very EASY to place if you move them out into the room and flip the woofer pods around to FRONT-firing. Results in an incredibly coherent wavefront in the nearfield. For placement closer than 5' from the front wall I'd then start to use rear-firing to dial in bass balance. Too bad the cheaper Fidelio doesn't offer the same flexibility, and thus has a huge disadvantage....

Ernie- I just can't get over how different our experience with these speakers is. When two audiophile friends and I returned from the show in Montreal last weekend we came to one of my friends homes and listened to his parsifal encores, his are about 7-8 feet from the rear wall- the rest of his system is first rate(tenor amps, audio aero cap. mk II cdp, basis 2500 table(graham 2.2 arm and koetsu rosewood signiture platinum cartridge), aesthetix IO and Jena Labs wiring through out. We were listening to his system and couldn't get over how bad it sounded, lack of coherency, slow and just didn't really seem to do any thing right, the next day he traded his speakers in and ordered something new. We tried many different locations, woofer cabinets front firing, rear firing it just never really came together.

He just couldn't take it anymore, I have heard these speakers in 4 real world rooms(i.e. not dealers and at shows- they never sound good at shows) including my own and they are enjoyable but they just seem to be lacking. There is something VERY unnatural about the lower midrange(the very audible crossover point) it is a nice sound, but after a lot of listening to these speakers they just don't sound like music. You will notice this varies from my experience last September because that is before I had this speakers in my room and was living with them, I found it to be unenjoyable- all in all they didn't get me as close to the music as I had thought they would have. They may be great for some people, they are at an interesting price point- which makes them very attractive but there are many other choices at or near there price that would seem like good choices to consider as well- that is to my ears and the other 2 audiophiles who were listening to this system as with all things audio your experience may be different, but 3 out of 3 on what seems to be a first rate system seems pretty convincing to me.....

Tireguy, I am indeed puzzled.
On the crossover issue, you'll note that it's a VERY low 150Hz, so that the woofer is contributing very little in the lower mids. The upper satellites are ported to provide a bit of lift in the upper bass/low mids.
The coherency inherent from wide-set crosses at 150Hz and 5kHz is practically self-explanatory, and allows sitting in the extreme nearfield...even as recording monitors, so I certainly don't understand your comment. Wow.
I certainly agree that if you pull them out more than a few feet from the front (is that what you meant?) wall (mine are 10'), then you MUST flip the woofs around to provide enough LF, but I can't understand how they could be described as anemic in that geometry.
The woofers ARE ultrafast, and super "clean", if you will, so the speakers aren't plump or warm from overhang or an upper bass bump like most 3 ways.
So I find your results fascinating. My wife and I are contemplating a weekend in Montreal this year, since it's an easy ride (or train) from Boston.
Wanna come down to Boston and listen to my setup? Mine are in a quite-dead 14x24x8 living room with only moderate sidewalls reflection and faily low slap-echo, etc.
In my adjacent 14x30x10 VERY live familyroom HT system I have Spendors and a Boston PV1000 sub, all dialed in to be much warmer to overcome the harder acoustic, for comparison.
This system is great for video and background FM (as I type), but when I want a searingly-real stage and unbelievalbly real music-making I walk over and sit down in front of the Parsifals for those live FM feeds from 'GBH et al.
My wife's a GREAT cook. How 'bout yours?
RSVP.