Rockport Mira VS Verity Parsifal Ovation

If you have the budget and can stretch a bit, I vote for the Rockport Ankaas. They are absolutely the best bang for the buck in Rockport's line. It's extremely extended and integrated in the bass/midrange, throws a massive soundstage (if room acoustics allow), images superbly, and sounds very close to live music. The cabinet construction is on another level from the Mira as well, which I think alone is worth the extra price.

If you look at cost/performance, I think the Ankaas are it.

Personally I like some substance/heft on the speakers. Verity likes smaller/slimmer profiles which is a different direction.

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.

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.

RTN1 - very nice Avalon's you got there. I had seriously considered the Avalon's as well. I demo'd the Time and the ISIS both for a long time. Unfortunately the demo room was not setup quite right and it didn't reach anywhere near its potential because of room acoustics. I'm sure they are fabulous at your place.

I see you have the Karen amps. Someone had recommended them to me as well but they do not sell it where I live.

I'm about to plunk down for Gryphon Mirage + Colosseum (holy sheeit are they expensive... it's so hard to pull the trigger!!). I currently have the Mark Levinson 326S + 432 which I do not think will be enough for the Rockports, and probably without the body/fullness/control. I could look for the older 33/33H but Andy Payor suggested otherwise (he used to own 33H's).

On your lack of sidewalls - any idea if this is theoretically good or bad? I lack sidewalls but it's not really a rectangle but more like a trapezoid. I'm not sure if this is good for imaging/soundstage either. I've been playing with the Chesky test CD's (Best of Chesky Jazz #2, "Height Test" and "General Image and Resolution Test") and I can't get the height to extend beyond 65% up and the imaging doesn't go all around me on that monkey test (if you know that track). I wonder if this has anything to do with lack of sidewalls.

11flat6 - yes you're exactly right. It's quite open. It opens up to my study and dining room. The shape is a bit odd. I do not have a choice of a separate music room.

Ever have any experience with this type of setups? Probably not very ideal right?

Windowsx - I don't think you can go wrong with the Rockports (nor the Verity's to be honest). What's the scoop on the Mira II's? They had updated the Mira Grand II's to use the carbon midrange units instead of the older ones. I'm guessing the Mira II would be the same?