Verity Parsifal Encore VS. Vandersteen 5a

Hi, Tim:

I can't compare the two speakers, because I have not heard the Parsifals. What may be of interest to you, however, is that Richard Vandersteen used the Tenor OTL tube amps to drive the Vandy 5A's in the Vandy demo room at the CES last month. I have heard from a few of the local audiophiles I know that the Vandy 5A / Tenor OTL sound was outstanding -- probably the best sound from the Vandersteen room in a long time.

I'm the mirror-image here, in that I've heard (owned for three years) the Parsifal Encores.
Attributes are a scarily-good midrange...truly statlike in coherence and speed. Wide-set crossover (150Hz and 5khz!) allows VERY nearfield setup...unusual for a 3-way medium-sized speaker.
The Encore uses a 4 ohm custom-spec woofer that DOES suck some juice, but the total impedence curve doesn't dip too far. My 100/160/w 8/4ohm Aleph 2 monos are just dandy.
This speaker is uncannily resolving, and with pair-matching brought to a +/- 1/4dB extreme the soundstage precision is spectacular.Fortunately the woofer modules are reversible, allowing more room-placement flexibility than most three-ways.
Weakness might be that there's only one 8" woofer per side (though it does reach in-room quite nicely to 30 HZ before falling off!), and thus hard-rockers would prefer lots more mid bass.
As with my previous comparisons with Aeriels, B&W 803N, Revel, etc., wherein I found the Encore's midrange to be clearly the best, but the others could pump more air, I would initially expect the same result from a Vandy/Verity comparo.
I would STRONGLY urge you to compare in your listening room, after acoustic treatment. Have fun. Ern

Hey Tim! Hmmmm! Are we sliding down the slippery slope? Do I gather from your post that the 75 watt OTL might be of a certain Montreal origin and possibly be called an Alto? No, I mean Soprano! No wait, maybe it's a TENOR?????? Do I smell a junkie in the making?

On the serious side my friend, both of those speakers will sound excellent IMHO, with the Tenors. Unfortunately, it would be best to hear them both with the Tenors in the same system. I know this sounds crazy, but I once took my power amps and my CDP to a dealer who carried the two lines of speakers I was considering to hear them with my stuff. Way crazy I know, but it was well worth the effort. I say this because if you get the Tenors, you could take your Aero and the Tenors to a dealer who carries the speakers and at least see what you think (this is assuming you cannot get a home audtion of the speaker).

As far as the Tenors go, I will say that IN MY OPINION (which is based on MY experiences, MY tastes and preferences and MY room and gear), they are BY A LARGE MARGIN, the finest amplifiers this man has ever heard. I have had my beloved Lamms for 4 years and would not have believed it if I had heard it with my own ears, just how much better the Tenors are. They are better in every area, even the bass, yes, I said bass. They are uncanny holographic, refined, effortless, rich, balanced and with simply stunning realism. Their harmonic purity is unbelievable. Do you get the opinion I like them? I have heard many a fine amplifier in my system, but for me, nothing has come close to what these amps can do.

So, are you getting hooked yet? If you do get the Tenors, you can build a system around them and be in sonic heaven. Although the Vandy's would be an easier load, I know for a fact that they sound wonderful with the Parisfals. I have them mated with the Kharma Midi-Grands and they have MORE than enough power and headroom to rock the house (something I was a doubting Thomas about before I got them). I am known to listen to certain funk music and large scale classical at high SPL levels and the Tenors produced the goods better than my former Lamm 100 watt hybrids.

Welcome to the abyss!

Frank

PS - just to be clear, I AM talking about the Tenor 75 watt OTLs not the new 300 watt hybrids that I ordered. I have the 75 watters in for review (and I am thinking about just keeping these as I cannot fathom the hybrid being better!)